1841 Masaryk (
''prov. designation'': ) is a carbonaceous
background asteroid from the outer region of the
asteroid belt, approximately 46 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 26 October 1971, by Czech astronomer
Luboš Kohoutek at
Bergedorf Observatory in Hamburg, Germany.
The asteroid was named after the first President of
Czechoslovakia,
Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk.
Orbit and classification
''Masaryk'' orbits the Sun in the
outer main-belt at a distance of 3.1–3.8
AU once every 6 years and 4 months (2,311 days). Its orbit has an
eccentricity of 0.10 and an
inclination of 3
° with respect to the
ecliptic.
First identified as at
Uccle Observatory
The Royal Observatory of Belgium (french: link=no, Observatoire Royal de Belgique, nl, Koninklijke Sterrenwacht van België), has been situated in the Uccle municipality of Brussels (Belgium) since 1890. It was first established in Saint-Josse ...
, ''Masaryk''s first used observation was 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 1955, extending the body's
observation arc by 16 years prior to its official discovery observation.
Naming
This
minor planet was named in honor of the first president of the independent Czechoslovak Republic,
Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk (1850–1937), statesman, philosopher and known for his humanistic ideas.
The official was published by the
Minor Planet Center
The Minor Planet Center (MPC) is the official body for observing and reporting on minor planets under the auspices of the International Astronomical Union (IAU). Founded in 1947, it operates at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory.
Function
...
on 20 December 1974 ().
Physical characteristics
The
carbonaceous asteroid is characterized as a (darker)
P-type and as a transitional CX-type by
NEOWISE and
PanSTARRS, respectively.
Rotation period
In April 2006, a rotational
lightcurve of ''Masaryk'' was obtained from photometric observations made by French amateur astronomer
Pierre Antonini. It gave 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 7.53 hours with a brightness variation of 0.52
magnitude ().
The result agrees with a lightcurve published in March 2016, using sparse-in-time photometry data from the Lowell Photometric Database ().
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, ''Masaryk'' measures between 38.6 and 46.1 kilometers in diameter, and its surface has an
albedo between 0.039 and 0.057.
The ''Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link'' derives an albedo of 0.036 and a diameter of 46.0 kilometers with an
absolute magnitude of 10.9.
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:Masaryk
001841
Discoveries by Luboš Kohoutek
Named minor planets
19711026