(8777) Torquata

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( 8777 ) Torquata is a main belt asteroid of the middle, which was discovered on 16 October 1977 by the Dutch astronomer Cornelis Johannes van Houten couple and Ingrid van Houten - Groeneveld. The discovery happened at the 3rd trojan screening, in which the 120 - cm Oschin Schmidt telescope of the Palomar Observatory recorded by Tom Gehrels field plates at Leiden University were screened, 17 years after the beginning of the Palomar - Leiden Surveys.

Mean distance from the sun ( semimajor axis), eccentricity and inclination of the orbital plane of ( 8777 ) Torquata roughly correspond to the Dora family, a group of asteroids that is named after ( 668 ) Dora. After FORMING classification (Small Main -Belt Asteroid Spectroscopic Survey) were assumed in ( 8777 ) Torquata from a bright surface with a spectroscopic investigation of Gianluca Masi, Sergio Foglia and Richard P. Binzel, it might be so, roughly speaking, to act an S- asteroids.

( 8777 ) Torquata was named after the Stonechat on 2 February 1999, whose scientific name ( Saxicola torquata ) is. At the time of designation of the asteroid, the Stonechat was at the Dutch Red List of endangered bird species. The crater Torquata on the asteroid ( 4) Vesta, however, was named after the vestal Iunia Torquata on 21 November 2012.