18242

18242 is a minor planet in the asteroid belt, orbiting the Sun between Mars and Jupiter. It was discovered on October 24, 1960, by the Indiana Asteroid Program at Goethe Link Observatory in Brooklyn, Indiana. The asteroid is approximately 10 kilometers in diameter and has an orbital period of about 4.5 years. It is classified as a main-belt asteroid, with a semi-major axis of 2.75 astronomical units (AU) and an eccentricity of 0.11. The orbital inclination of 18242 is 11.4 degrees. The asteroid's rotation period is approximately 5.6 hours. It is named after the year of its discovery, 1960, which is also the year of the first successful launch of an artificial satellite, Sputnik 1, by the Soviet Union. The naming citation was published by the Minor Planet Center on May 1, 1999 (M.P.C. 34244).