Astronomical objects discovered in 1942

1556 Wingolfia, provisional designation 1942 AA, is a metallic asteroid from the outer regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 30 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered by German astronomer Karl Reinmuth at the Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory on 14 January 1942. The asteroid was named after Wingolf, a student fraternity in Heidelberg.

1656 Suomi (prov. designation: 1942 EC) is a binary Hungaria asteroid and sizable Mars-crosser from the innermost regions of the asteroid belt. It was discovered on 11 March 1942, by Finnish astronomer Yrjö Väisälä at Turku Observatory in Southwest Finland, who named it "Suomi", the native name of Finland. The stony asteroid has a short rotation period of 2.6 hours and measures approximately 7.9 kilometers in diameter. In June 2020, a companion was discovered by Brian Warner, Robert Stephens and Alan Harris. The satellite measures more than 1.98 kilometers in diameter, about 26% of the primary, which it orbits once every 57.9 hours at an average distance of 30 kilometers.

5535 Annefrank (an-FRANK), provisional designation 1942 EM, is a stony Florian asteroid and suspected contact binary from the inner asteroid belt, approximately 4.5 kilometers in diameter. It was used as a target to practice the flyby technique that the Stardust space probe would later use on the comet Wild 2.

1849 Kresák (prov. designation: 1942 AB) is a carbonaceous Eos asteroid from the outer region of the asteroid belt, approximately 24 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered by German astronomer Karl Reinmuth at Heidelberg Observatory in the middle of World War II on 14 January 1942. The asteroid was later named after Slovak astronomer Ľubor Kresák.

1558 Järnefelt, provisional designation 1942 BD, is a carbonaceous asteroid from the outer region of the asteroid belt, approximately 65 kilometers in diameter.

2064 Thomsen (prov. designation: 1942 RQ) is a stony asteroid and Mars-crosser on an eccentric orbit, that measures approximately 13 kilometers (8.1 miles) in diameter. The asteroid was discovered by Finnish astronomer Liisi Oterma at Turku Observatory, Finland, on 8 September 1942. It was named after New Zealand astronomer Ivan Leslie Thomsen

1680 Per Brahe, provisional designation 1942 CH, is a bright background asteroid from the central region of the asteroid belt, approximately 14 kilometers (9 miles) in diameter. It was discovered on 12 February 1942, by Finnish astronomer Liisi Oterma at Turku Observatory in Southwest Finland. The stony S-type asteroid has a rotation period of 3.4 hours. It is named after Swedish count and governor Per Brahe the Younger.

1559 Kustaanheimo, provisional designation 1942 BF, is a stony asteroid from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 11 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 20 January 1942, by Finnish astronomer Liisi Oterma at the Iso-Heikkilä Observatory near Turku in southwest Finland. The asteroid was named after Finnish astronomer Paul Kustaanheimo (1924–1997).

2181 Fogelin (prov. designation: 1942 YA) is an Eunomia asteroid from the central regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 11 kilometers (7 miles) in diameter. It was discovered on 28 December 1942, by Germany astronomer Karl Reinmuth at the Heidelberg Observatory in southwest Germany. In 1980, it was named for Eric S. Fogelin an assistant at the Minor Planet Center. The likely elongated S-type asteroid has a rotation period of 14.07 hours.

Leo A (also known as Leo III) is an irregular galaxy that is part of the Local Group. It lies 2.6 million light-years from Earth, and was discovered by Fritz Zwicky in 1942. The estimated mass of this galaxy is (8.0 ± 2.7) × 10 solar masses, with at least 80% consisting of dark matter. It is one of the most isolated galaxies in the Local Group and shows no indications of an interaction or merger for several billion years. However, Leo A is nearly unique among irregular galaxies in that more than 90% of its stars formed more recently than 8 billion years ago, suggesting a rather unusual evolutionary history. The presence of RR Lyrae variables shows that the galaxy has an old stellar population that is up to 10 billion years in age.