4790 Petrpravec
4790 Petrpravec is a dark, carbon-rich asteroid in the central part of the asteroid belt. It is about 14 to 17 kilometers in diameter.
It was discovered on 9 August 1988 by American astronomer Eleanor Helin at Palomar Observatory in California. The asteroid is named after Czech astronomer Petr Pravec, a noted expert in asteroid photometry.
Petrpravec is considered a background object in the main belt, meaning it does not belong to a specific asteroid family, although some orbital analyses link it to the Eunomia family.
The asteroid orbits the Sun every about 4.25 years (roughly 1,554 days) at a distance of 2.4 to 2.9 astronomical units. Its orbit has an eccentricity of about 0.086 and an inclination of about 13 degrees.
Observations show a dark surface, and surveys classify it as a carbonaceous C-type asteroid. Its absolute magnitude is around 13, and diameter estimates range from about 14 to 18 kilometers, with albedo values from roughly 0.03 to 0.16, depending on the survey.
A 2012 lightcurve study found almost no brightness variation, so the rotation period has not been determined.
The naming citation for Petrpravec was published in 1997, recognizing Petr Pravec’s contributions to asteroid photometry and his role in observing objects discovered by asteroid-search programs.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 14:12 (CET).