2759 Idomeneus is a dark

Jupiter trojan The Jupiter trojans, commonly called trojan asteroids or simply trojans, are a large group of asteroids that share the planet Jupiter's orbit around the Sun. Relative to Jupiter, each trojan librates around one of Jupiter's stable Lagrange poin ...

from the

Greek camp This is a list of Jupiter trojans that lie in the Greek camp, an elongated curved region around the leading Lagrangian point (), 60 ° ahead of Jupiter in its orbit. All the asteroids at Jupiter's point have names corresponding to participants ...

, approximately in diameter. It was discovered on 14 April 1980, by American astronomer Edward Bowell at the Anderson Mesa Station near Flagstaff, Arizona, in the United States, and later named after Idomeneus from Greek mythology. The D-type asteroid from the Jovian background population belongs to the 80 largest Jupiter trojans. It is a suspected binary system and potentially a slow rotator with 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 479 hours.

Orbit and classification

''Idomeneus'' is a dark Jovian

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. ...

orbiting in the leading Greek camp at Jupiter's

Lagrangian point In celestial mechanics, the Lagrange points (; also Lagrangian points or libration points) are points of equilibrium for small-mass objects under the influence of two massive orbiting bodies. Mathematically, this involves the solution of th ...

, 60 ° ahead of the Gas Giant's orbit in a 1:1 resonance . It is also a non- family asteroid in the Jovian background population. It orbits the Sun at a distance of 4.8–5.5 AU once every 11 years and 10 months (4,313 days;

semi-major axis In geometry, the major axis of an ellipse is its longest diameter: a line segment that runs through the center and both foci, with ends at the two most widely separated points of the perimeter. The semi-major axis (major semiaxis) is the long ...

of 5.19 AU). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.07 and an inclination of 22 ° with respect to the ecliptic. The body's observation arc begins 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

Palomar Observatory Palomar Observatory is an astronomical research observatory in San Diego County, California, United States, in the Palomar Mountain Range. It is owned and operated by the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). Research time at the observat ...

in April 1954, or 26 years prior to its official discovery observation at Anderson Mesa.

Physical characteristics

In the SDSS-based taxonomy, ''Idomeneus'' is a D-type asteroid. Pan-STARRS' survey has also characterized it as a dark D-type, while the ''Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link'' (CALL) assumes it to be a C-type. Its V–I color index of 0.91, however, is typical for most larger D-type Jupiter trojans.

Rotation period

In May 1991, a rotational lightcurve of ''Idomeneus'' was obtained from photometric observations by

Stefano Mottola This is a list of minor-planet discoverers credited by the Minor Planet Center with the discovery of one or several minor planets (such as near-Earth and main-belt asteroids, Jupiter trojans and distant objects). , the discovery of 612,011 numb ...

using the now decommissioned

ESO 1-metre telescope 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 ...

at La Silla Observatory in Chile, with follow-up observation made in June 1992 and in November 2010. Lightcurve analysis gave a

between 32.38 and 32.4 hours with a brightness amplitude between 0.22 and 0.27 magnitude ().

Suspected binary and slow rotator

In June 2016, observation by Brian Warner at the Palmer Divide Station at the

Center for Solar System Studies This is a list of observatory codes (IAU codes or MPC codes) published by the Minor Planet Center. For a detailed description, ''see observations of small Solar System bodies''. List References * {{DEFAULTSORT:Observat ...

in California, gave an exceptionally long period hours and an amplitude of magnitude (), which makes it a slow rotator. The observations also indicated that ''Idomeneus'' is a binary asteroid with a minor-planet moon in its orbit. The satellite's orbital period is hours, or alternatively, hours with a brightness variation of 0.14 magnitude. However, the results are tentative and have not been published in any journal as of 2018.

Diameter and albedo

According to the surveys carried out by the Japanese Akari satellite, the Infrared Astronomical Satellite IRAS, and the NEOWISE mission of NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, ''Idomeneus'' measures between 52.55 and 61.01 kilometers in diameter and its surface has an albedo between 0.0571 and 0.078. CALL derives an albedo of 0.0521 and a diameter of 60.95 kilometers based on an absolute magnitude of 9.9.

Naming

This minor planet was named after the Greek hero Idomeneus, who led the Cretan armies to the Trojan War and where he slew many Trojans. The official 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 20 December 1983 ().

Notes

References

External links

Asteroid Lightcurve Database (LCDB)
query form

)
Dictionary of Minor Planet Names
Google books

– Minor Planet Center * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Idomeneus 002759 Discoveries by Edward L. G. Bowell Named minor planets 19800414