6144 Kondojiro

6144 Kondojiro is an asteroid discovered on March 14, 1994 by Kin Endate and Kazuro Watanabe at the Kitami Observatory in eastern Hokkaidō, Japan. It is named after Jiro Kondo, a Japanese Egyptologist and professor of archaeology at Waseda University.

Orbit and classification


The orbit of 6144 Kondojiro is unusual for a number of reasons, including: It is difficult to classify an object with such a peculiar orbit using a conventional definition. Despite this, the Minor Planet Center (MPC) lists it as a main-belt asteroid, even though both the orbital and physical properties of 6144 Kondojiro suggest that it may be an extinct comet rather than a true asteroid. The JPL Small-Body Database lists only 33 such objects that have an observation arc greater than 30 days.
 * An eccentricity greater than 0.3,
 * A semi-major axis between that of an outer main-belt asteroid (3.2 AU < a < 4.6 AU) and a Jupiter trojan (4.6 AU < a < 5.5 AU),
 * A relatively low inclination for a Jupiter-crossing minor planet, and
 * A lack of proper orbital elements due to recurring perturbations by Jupiter.