1943 Anteros , provisional designation , is a spheroidal, rare-type

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. ...

and near-Earth object of the

Amor group Amor Group was Scotland's largest independent business technology company before being acquired by Lockheed Martin in September 2013. The business was formed after a £28 million management buyout of Glasgow based Real Time Engineering Ltd. an ...

, approximately 2 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 13 March 1973, by American astronomer James Gibson at the Leoncito Astronomical Complex in Argentina, and named for the Greek god

Anteros In Greek mythology, Anteros (; Ancient Greek: Ἀντέρως ''Antérōs'') was the god of requited love (literally "love returned" or "counter-love") and also the punisher of those who scorn love and the advances of others, or the avenger of u ...

Orbit and classification

''Anteros'' is an Amor asteroid, which approach the orbit of Earth from beyond but do not cross it. It orbits the Sun at a distance of 1.1–1.8 AU once every 1 year and 9 months (625 days). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.26 and an inclination of 9 ° with respect to the ecliptic. The near-Earth object has an Earth minimum orbit intersection distance of or 24.5 lunar distances, which is slightly above the defined limit of 0.05 AU for

potentially hazardous object A potentially hazardous object (PHO) is a near-Earth object – either an asteroid or a comet – with an orbit that can make close approaches to the Earth and is large enough to cause significant regional damage in the event of impact. They ar ...

s. The body's observation arc begins 3 days prior to its official discovery observation in 1973, as a 1968-

precovery In astronomy, precovery (short for pre-discovery recovery) is the process of finding the image of an object in images or photographic plates predating its discovery, typically for the purpose of calculating a more accurate orbit. This happens mos ...

from Palomar remained unused.

Physical characteristics

In the Tholen classification, ''Anteros'' is a common S-type asteroid, while in the SMASS taxonomy, it is a relatively rare

L-type asteroid L-type asteroids are relatively uncommon asteroids with a strongly reddish spectrum shortwards of 0.75 μm, and a featureless flat spectrum longwards of this. In comparison with the K-type, they exhibit a more reddish spectrum at visible wavele ...

, described as a reddish but otherwise featureless stony asteroid. It has also been characterized as a Sq subtype, which transitions to the

Q-type asteroid Q-type asteroids are relatively uncommon inner-belt asteroids with a strong, broad 1 micrometre olivine and pyroxene feature, and a spectral slope that indicates the presence of metal. There are absorption features shortwards and longwards of 0. ...

Rotation period

Several rotational lightcurves of ''Anteros'' were obtained from photometric observations by Brian Warner, Petr Pravec, 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 ...

and others since the 1980s. One of the best-rated and most recent lightcurves was obtained at the Palmer Divide Station () in December 2013, and 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 2.867 hours with a brightness variation of 0.1 magnitude, which indicates that ''Anteros'' has a nearly spheroidal shape ().

Diameter and albedo

According to the EXPLORENEOs survey carried out by the

Spitzer Space Telescope The Spitzer Space Telescope, formerly the Space Infrared Telescope Facility (SIRTF), was an infrared space telescope launched in 2003. Operations ended on 30 January 2020. Spitzer was the third space telescope dedicated to infrared astronomy, f ...

, ''Anteros'' measures between 2.38 and 2.43 kilometers in diameter, and its surface has an albedo of 0.138 to 0.170. The ''Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link'' assumes an albedo of 0.18 and derives a diameter of 2.0 kilometers with an absolute magnitude of 15.89.

Naming

This minor planet was named after the Greek god

, avenger of unrequited love and punisher of those who scorn love and the advances of others. The asteroid's name may have been chosen because its orbit is similar to the asteroid

433 Eros Eros (minor planet designation: (433) Eros), provisional designation is a stony asteroid of the Amor group and the first discovered and second-largest near-Earth object with an elongated shape and a mean diameter of approximately . Visi ...

, and in Greek mythology, Anteros was said to be the twin brother of Eros. 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 15 October 1977 ().

References

External links

*
Asteroid Lightcurve Database (LCDB)
query form

)
Dictionary of Minor Planet Names
Google books

– Observatoire de Genève, Raoul Behrend * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Anteros 001943 Discoveries by James B. Gibson (astronomer) Named minor planets 001943 001943 19730313