3552 Don Quixote is a small Amor, Mars-crossing, Jupiter-crossing, potentially hazardous asteroid. It has a highly inclined comet-like orbit, and measures about 19 km in diameter. Its rotation period is 7.7 hours. It was discovered by Paul Wild in 1983, and is named after the comic knight who is the eponymous hero of Cervantes' Spanish novel Don Quixote (1605).
Don Quixote is suspected to be an extinct comet. Don Quixote is frequently perturbed by Jupiter.
Famous quotes containing the words don quixote, don and/or quixote:
“When you think of the huge uninterrupted success of a book like Don Quixote, you’re bound to realize that if humankind have not yet finished being revenged, by sheer laughter, for being let down in their greatest hope, it is because that hope was cherished so long and lay so deep!”
—Georges Bernanos (1888–1948)
“Even the strongest man needs friends.”
—Mario Puzo, U.S. author, screenwriter, and Francis Ford Coppola, U.S. director, screenwriter. Don Lucase, The Godfather III, advice given to Vincent (Andy Garcia)
“There are no such oysters, terrapin, or canvas-back ducks as there were in those days; the race is extinct. It is strange how things degenerate.... I passed, the other day, the deserted house of Mrs. Gerry, which I used to think so lordly. It stands alone now amid the surrounding sky-scrapers, and reminds me of Don Quixote going out to fight the windmills. It should always remain to mark the difference between the past and the present.”
—M. E. W. Sherwood (1826–1903)