21088 Chelyabinsk, provisional designation , is a stony
asteroid and
near-Earth object
A near-Earth object (NEO) is any small Solar System body whose orbit brings it into proximity with Earth. By convention, a Solar System body is a NEO if its closest approach to the Sun (perihelion) is less than 1.3 astronomical units (AU). ...
of the
Amor group, approximately 4 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 30 January 1992, by Belgian astronomer
Eric Elst
Eric Walter Elst (30 November 1936 – 2 January 2022) was a Belgian astronomer at the Royal Observatory of Belgium in Uccle and a prolific discoverer of asteroids. The Minor Planet Center ranks him among the top 10 discoverers of minor planets ...
at
ESO
The European Organisation for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere, commonly referred to as the European Southern Observatory (ESO), is an intergovernmental research organisation made up of 16 member states for ground-based ast ...
's
La Silla Observatory
La Silla Observatory is an astronomical observatory in Chile with three telescopes built and operated by the European Southern Observatory (ESO). Several other telescopes are located at the site and are partly maintained by ESO. The observatory is ...
in northern Chile. The asteroid was named after the Russian city of
Chelyabinsk
Chelyabinsk ( rus, Челя́бинск, p=tɕɪˈlʲæbʲɪnsk, a=Ru-Chelyabinsk.ogg; ba, Силәбе, ''Siläbe'') is the administrative center and largest city of Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia. It is the seventh-largest city in Russia, with a ...
and for its spectacular
Chelyabinsk meteor event in 2013.
Classification and orbit
''Chelyabinsk'' orbits the Sun at a distance of 1.3–2.1
AU once every 2 years and 3 months (814 days). Its orbit has an
eccentricity
Eccentricity or eccentric may refer to:
* Eccentricity (behavior), odd behavior on the part of a person, as opposed to being "normal"
Mathematics, science and technology Mathematics
* Off-Centre (geometry), center, in geometry
* Eccentricity (g ...
of 0.24 and an
inclination
Orbital inclination measures the tilt of an object's orbit around a celestial body. It is expressed as the angle between a reference plane and the orbital plane or axis of direction of the orbiting object.
For a satellite orbiting the Eart ...
of 38
° with respect to the
ecliptic
The ecliptic or ecliptic plane is the orbital plane of the Earth around the Sun. From the perspective of an observer on Earth, the Sun's movement around the celestial sphere over the course of a year traces out a path along the ecliptic agains ...
. A first
precovery was taken during the
Digitized Sky Survey at the Australia
Siding Spring Observatory in January 1990, extending the asteroid's
observation arc
In observational astronomy, the observation arc (or arc length) of a Solar System body is the time period between its earliest and latest observations, used for tracing the body's path. It is usually given in days or years. The term is mostly use ...
by 2 years prior to its official discovery at La Silla.
Close approaches
As a
near-Earth object
A near-Earth object (NEO) is any small Solar System body whose orbit brings it into proximity with Earth. By convention, a Solar System body is a NEO if its closest approach to the Sun (perihelion) is less than 1.3 astronomical units (AU). ...
, ''Chelyabinsk'' has a low Earth
minimum orbit intersection distance
Minimum orbit intersection distance (MOID) is a measure used in astronomy to assess potential close approaches and collision risks between astronomical objects. It is defined as the distance between the closest points of the osculating orbits o ...
of , which translates into 120.1
lunar distances (LD). This is, however, far too large to make it a
potentially hazardous asteroid
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 are ...
, which have intersection distances of less than 20 LD.
It also crosses the orbit of Mars at 1.666 AU which makes it a
Mars-crossing asteroid
A Mars-crossing asteroid (MCA, also Mars-crosser, MC) is an asteroid whose orbit crosses that of Mars. Some Mars-crossers numbered below 100000 are listed here. They include the two numbered Mars trojans 5261 Eureka and .
Many databases, for in ...
. In August 2142, it will approach the Red Planet at .
Physical characteristics
''Chelyabinsk'' has been characterized as both a
Q-type and
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 ...
.
It is also a generically assumed
S-type asteroid
S-type asteroids are asteroids with a spectral type that is indicative of a siliceous (i.e. stony) mineralogical composition, hence the name. They have relatively high density. Approximately 17% of asteroids are of this type, making it the secon ...
.
Lightcurves
Two rotational
light-curve
In astronomy, a light curve is a graph of light intensity of a celestial object or region as a function of time, typically with the magnitude of light received on the y axis and with time on the x axis. The light is usually in a particular freq ...
s of ''Chelyabinsk'' were obtained by Czech astronomer
Petr Pravec
Petr Pravec (born September 17, 1967) is a Czech astronomer and a discoverer of minor planets, born in Třinec, Czech Republic.
Pravec is a prolific discoverer of binary asteroids, expert in photometric observations and rotational lightcurves ...
at
Ondřejov Observatory
The Ondřejov Observatory (; cs, Observatoř Ondřejov) is the principal observatory of the Astronomical Institute () of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic. It is located near the village of Ondřejov, southeast of Prague, Czech ...
in December 2002 and September 2004, respectively. They gave a
rotation period of 22.490 and hours, each with a brightness variation of 0.13
magnitude
Magnitude may refer to:
Mathematics
*Euclidean vector, a quantity defined by both its magnitude and its direction
*Magnitude (mathematics), the relative size of an object
*Norm (mathematics), a term for the size or length of a vector
*Order of ...
().
Diameter and albedo
According to the survey carried out by the
NEOWISE
Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE, observatory code C51, Explorer 92 and SMEX-6) is a NASA infrared astronomy space telescope in the Explorers Program. It was launched in December 2009, and placed in hibernation mode in February 201 ...
mission of NASA's
Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer
Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE, observatory code C51, Explorer 92 and SMEX-6) is a NASA infrared astronomy space telescope in the Explorers Program. It was launched in December 2009, and placed in hibernation mode in February 201 ...
(WISE), ''Chelyabinsk'' measures between 2.79 and 4.2 kilometers in diameter and its surface has an
albedo
Albedo (; ) is the measure of the diffuse reflection of solar radiation out of the total solar radiation and measured on a scale from 0, corresponding to a black body that absorbs all incident radiation, to 1, corresponding to a body that refl ...
between 0.21 and 0.37,
while observations by the Japanese
Akari
Akari (ASTRO-F) was an infrared astronomy satellite developed by Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, in cooperation with institutes of Europe and Korea. It was launched on 21 February 2006, at 21:28 UTC (06:28, 22 February JST) by M-V rocke ...
satellite gave an albedo of 0.26 and a diameter of 3.5 kilometers.
The ''Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link'' adopts Petr Pravec's revised WISE results, that is, a diameter of 4.23 kilometers and an albedo of 0.179 based on an
absolute magnitude
Absolute magnitude () is a measure of the luminosity of a celestial object on an inverse logarithmic astronomical magnitude scale. An object's absolute magnitude is defined to be equal to the apparent magnitude that the object would have if it ...
of 14.35.
Naming
This
minor planet
According to the International Astronomical Union (IAU), a minor planet is an astronomical object in direct orbit around the Sun that is exclusively classified as neither a planet nor a comet. Before 2006, the IAU officially used the term ''mino ...
is named after the Russian city
Chelyabinsk
Chelyabinsk ( rus, Челя́бинск, p=tɕɪˈlʲæbʲɪnsk, a=Ru-Chelyabinsk.ogg; ba, Силәбе, ''Siläbe'') is the administrative center and largest city of Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia. It is the seventh-largest city in Russia, with a ...
, located in the Urals, Siberia. The city is well known for the
Chelyabinsk meteor, a 20-meter sized, extremely bright
fireball that exploded to the south of the city at an altitude of 30 kilometers on 15 February 2013. The indirect effects of the explosion injured more than 1,500 people.
The official naming citation was published by the
Minor Planet Center (MPC) on 21 August 2013 ().
Erratum
Originally, the name "Chelyabinsk" was erroneously given by the MPC to the numerically similar asteroid on 22 July (). The wrong designation was deleted in the subsequent publication of the
Minor Planet Circulars on 21 August 2013 ()
Notes
References
External links
Asteroid Lightcurve Database (LCDB) query form
)
Dictionary of Minor Planet Names Google books
– Observatoire de Genève, Raoul Behrend
*
*
*
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021088
Discoveries by Eric Walter Elst
Minor planets named for places
Named minor planets
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