1690 Mayrhofer, provisional designation , is a carbonaceous
asteroid
An asteroid is a minor planet of the inner Solar System. Sizes and shapes of asteroids vary significantly, ranging from 1-meter rocks to a dwarf planet almost 1000 km in diameter; they are rocky, metallic or icy bodies with no atmosphere.
...
from the outer region of the
asteroid belt, approximately 32 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 8 November 1948, by French astronomer
Marguerite Laugier at
Nice Observatory in south-east France.
It was later named after Austrian amateur astronomer
Karl Mayrhofer Karl may refer to:
People
* Karl (given name), including a list of people and characters with the name
* Karl der Große, commonly known in English as Charlemagne
* Karl Marx, German philosopher and political writer
* Karl of Austria, last Austrian ...
.
Orbit and classification
The
C-type asteroid orbits the Sun in the
outer main-belt at a distance of 2.7–3.3
AU once every 5 years and 4 months (1,935 days). Its orbit has an
eccentricity of 0.10 and an
inclination of 13
° with respect to the
ecliptic.
First identified as at
Uccle, ''Mayrhofer''s
observation arc begins with its first used observation taken at
Goethe Link Observatory
The Goethe Link Observatory, observatory code 760, is an astronomical observatory near Brooklyn, Indiana, United States. It is owned by Indiana University and operated by the Indiana Astronomical Society https://iasindy.org/about.html, which effo ...
in 1953, or 5 years after its official discovery observation at Nice.
Physical characteristics
Rotation period
In November 2006, a rotational
lightcurve of ''Mayrhofer'' was obtained from observations taken by French amateur astronomer
Pierre Antonini, giving a
rotation period
The rotation period of a celestial object (e.g., star, gas giant, planet, moon, asteroid) may refer to its sidereal rotation period, i.e. the time that the object takes to complete a single revolution around its axis of rotation relative to the ...
of 22.194 hours with a brightness variation of 0.45 in
magnitude ().
Photometric observation in the R-band at the
Palomar Transient Factory
The Palomar Transient Factory (PTF, obs. code: I41), was an astronomical survey using a wide-field survey camera designed to search for optical transient and variable sources such as variable stars, supernovae, asteroids and comets. The projec ...
in November 2011, gave a shorter period of 19.0808 hours with an amplitude of 0.30 magnitude ().
Diameter and albedo
According to the surveys carried out by the Infrared Astronomical Satellite
IRAS, the Japanese
Akari satellite, and NASA's
Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer with its subsequent
NEOWISE mission, ''Mayrhofer'' measures between 31.18 and 33.81 kilometers in diameter, and its surface has an
albedo between 0.056 and 0.082.
The ''Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link'' derives an albedo of 0.064 and a diameter of 31.63 kilometers based on an
absolute magnitude of 11.1.
Naming
Proposed by German catholic priest and amateur astronomer
Otto Kippes
Otto Kippes (23 July 1905 – 2 February 1994) was a German Catholic priest and amateur astronomer, born in Bamberg, Bavaria. He was acknowledged especially for his work in asteroid orbit calculations, which brought him the Amateur Achievement A ...
, this minor planet was named after Austrian amateur astronomer Karl Mayrhofer (1903–1982). He lived in the Austrian town of
Ried im Innkreis and was known for his calculations of
orbital elements
Orbital elements are the parameters required to uniquely identify a specific orbit. In celestial mechanics these elements are considered in two-body systems using a Kepler orbit. There are many different ways to mathematically describe the same ...
for asteroids.
Naming citation was published on 1 October 1980 ().
References
External links
Asteroid Lightcurve Database (LCDB) query form
)
Dictionary of Minor Planet Names Google books
– Observatoire de Genève, Raoul Behrend
– Minor Planet Center
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Mayrhofer
001690
Discoveries by Marguerite Laugier
Named minor planets
19481108