2571 Geisei, provisional designation , is a stony Florian
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 inner regions of the
asteroid belt, approximately 6 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered by Japanese astronomer
Tsutomu Seki
is a Japanese astronomer and discoverer of minor planets and comets, born in Kōchi, Japan.
Career
Tsutomu Seki is the Director of the Geisei Observatory in Kōchi, and in charge of the Comet Section of the Oriental Astronomical Association. ...
at
Geisei Observatory
The list of asteroid-discovering observatories contains a section for each observatory which has discovered one or more asteroids, along with a list of those asteroids.
For each numbered asteroid, the Minor Planet Center lists one or more dis ...
on 23 October 1981, and named for the Japanese village of
Geisei.
Classification and Orbit
''Geisei'' is a member of the
Flora family, one of the largest families of
stony asteroids. It orbits the Sun in the
inner
Interior may refer to:
Arts and media
* ''Interior'' (Degas) (also known as ''The Rape''), painting by Edgar Degas
* ''Interior'' (play), 1895 play by Belgian playwright Maurice Maeterlinck
* ''The Interior'' (novel), by Lisa See
* Interior de ...
main-belt at a distance of 1.8–2.7
AU once every 3 years and 4 months (1,215 days). Its orbit has an
eccentricity of 0.19 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 Plane of reference, reference plane and the orbital plane or Axis of rotation, axis of direction of the orbiting object ...
of 3
° with respect to the
ecliptic.
In October 1911, ''Geisei'' was first identified as at
Heidelberg Observatory
Heidelberg (; Palatine German: ') is a city in the German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914, of which roughly a quarter consisted of students.
...
. 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 ...
begins 50 years prior to its discovery, with a
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 ...
taken at
Lowell Observatory
Lowell Observatory is an astronomical observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, United States. Lowell Observatory was established in 1894, placing it among the oldest observatories in the United States, and was designated a National Historic Landmark ...
in 1931.
Physical characteristics
Lightcurves
A rotational
lightcurve for this asteroid was obtained from photometric observations made at the Australian Oakley Southern Sky Observatory () in September 2014. The lightcurve 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 hours with a brightness variation of 0.50 in
magnitude ().
Diameter and albedo
According to the 2015/16
NEOWISE mission results of NASA's space-based
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 2011, ...
,
''Geisei'' measures 5.21 and 5.23 kilometers in diameter and its surface has an
albedo
Albedo (; ) is the measure of the diffuse reflection of sunlight, 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 ...
of 0.34 and 0.38, respectively.
Preliminary WISE results gave a diameter of 6.582 kilometers and an albedo of 0.275.
The ''Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link'' assumes an albedo of 0.24 – derived from
8 Flora
Flora (minor planet designation: 8 Flora) is a large, bright main-belt asteroid. It is the innermost ''large'' asteroid: no asteroid closer to the Sun has a diameter above 25 kilometres (20% that of Flora), and not until 20-km 149 Medusa was dis ...
, the largest member and namesake of the Flora family – and calculates a diameter of 6.81 kilometers using an
absolute magnitude
Absolute magnitude () is a measure of the luminosity of a celestial object on an inverse Logarithmic scale, logarithmic Magnitude (astronomy), astronomical magnitude scale. An object's absolute magnitude is defined to be equal to the apparent mag ...
of 13.0.
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 ''minor ...
is named after the small Japanese village of
Geisei, where the discovering observatory is located. Geisei is situated near the city of
Kōchi
Kochi is a city in Kerala, India.
Kochi or Kōchi may also refer to:
People
* Kochi people, a predominantly Pashtun nomadic people of Afghanistan
* , a Japanese surname:
** Arata Kochi (born 1948 or 1949), Japanese physician and World Health Org ...
, after which Tsutomu Seki's first discovery, the asteroid
2396 Kochi
__NOTOC__
Year 396 ( CCCXCVI) was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. In the Roman Empire, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Augustus and Augustus (or, less frequently, yea ...
, is named.
The approved naming citation 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 6 June 1982 ().
References
External links
Asteroid Lightcurve Database (LCDB) query form
)
Dictionary of Minor Planet Names Google books
– Observatoire de Genève, Raoul Behrend
– Minor Planet Center
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Geisei
002571
Discoveries by Tsutomu Seki
Named minor planets
19811023