7336 Saunders
7336 Saunders, provisional designation , is a stony asteroid and near-Earth object of the Amor group, approximately 0.5 kilometers in diameter. The asteroid was discovered on 6 September 1989, by American astronomer Eleanor Helin at Palomar Observatory in California, United States. It was named for JPL-project scientist R. Stephen Saunders. Orbit and classification. "Saunders" orbits the Sun at a distance of 1.2–3.4 AU once every 3 years and 6 months (1,278 days). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.48 and an inclination of 7° with respect to the ecliptic. A first precovery was taken at the  Australian Siding Spring Observatory in 1982, extending the body's observation arc by 7 years prior to its official discovery at Palomar. It has a minimum orbital intersection distance with Earth of , which corresponds to 74.3 lunar distances. Physical characteristics. In the SMASS classification, "Saunders" is a Sq-type, which transitions from the common S-type to the Q-type asteroids. The "Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link" assumes a standard albedo for stony asteroids of 0.20 and derives a diameter of 467 meters, based on an absolute magnitude of 19.02. Lightcurve. In October 1989, the first photometric observations of "Saunders" were  made with the ESO 1-metre telescope at La Silla in Chile. It gave a rotation period of 6 hours with a brightness variation of 0.3 magnitude (). Another rotational lightcurve was obtained by Czech astronomer Petr Pravec at Ondřejov Observatory in August 2003, giving a period of and an amplitude of 0.2 magnitude (). Naming. This minor planet was named in honor of JPL-project scientist R. Stephen Saunders (born 1940), director of the RPIF and head scientist of the "Solar System Exploration Office". He worked on the Mars Surveyor 2001/03 program and on the Magellan spacecraft, that visited and mapped  Venus in 1990. The official naming citation was published by the Minor Planet Center on 26 July 2000 ().