3757 Anagolay, provisional designation , is a highly eccentric

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. ...

, classified as 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 ...

and 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). ...

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 half a kilometer in diameter. It was discovered on 14 December 1982, by American astronomer

Eleanor Helin Eleanor Francis "Glo" Helin (née Francis, 19 November 1932 – 25 January 2009) was an American astronomer. She was principal investigator of the Near-Earth Asteroid Tracking (NEAT) program of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. (Some sources gi ...

at the

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 California, United States. The asteroid was named after Anagolay from

Philippine mythology Philippine mythology is the body of stories and epics originating from, and part of, the indigenous Philippine folk religions, which include various ethnic faiths distinct from one another. Philippine mythology is incorporated from various ...

Orbit and classification

''Anagolay'' 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 1.0–2.7 AU once every 2 years and 6 months (908 days). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.45 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 4 ° with respect to the ecliptic. It is a

because its ''Earth minimum orbit intersection distance'' (MOID) is less than 0.05 AU and its diameter is greater than 150 meters. Its Earth-MOID is which corresponds to 15 lunar distances. Its orbit is well-determined for the next several hundred years. The body'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 in 1986, as no precoveries and no identifications prior to its discovery were made.

Physical characteristics

In the Tholen classification, ''Anagolay'' is a silicaceous

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 second ...

. Based on two rotational lightcurves obtained in the 1980s, ''Anagolay'' has 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 9.012 hours and a brightness variation of 0.20 and 0.21 in magnitude, respectively (). A third lightcurve, also from the 1980s, gave an alternative period of hours with an amplitude of 0.14 (). The body's

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 ...

lies between 0.18 and 0.34, with the ''Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link'' (CALL) deriving an intermediate albedo of 0.26. CALL also assumes a diameter of 390 meters.

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 ...

was named after Anagolay, the goddess of the lost things worshipped by pre-Hispanic

Tagalogs The Tagalog people ( tl, Mga Tagalog; Baybayin: ᜋᜅ ᜆᜄᜎᜓᜄ᜔) are the largest ethnolinguistic group in the Philippines, numbering at around 30 million. An Austronesian people, the Tagalog have a well developed society due to their cu ...

. In

, Anagolay is the daughter of the hermaphroditic agricultural deity Lakampati (also goddess Ikapati). The name, suggested by Filipino student Mohammad Abqary Alon, was selected among 85 other suggestions in a contest held by the

Space Generation Advisory Council The Space Generation Advisory Council (SGAC), in support of the United Nations Programme on Space Applications, is a non-governmental organization and professional network. that "''aims to bring the views of students and young space professional ...

's "Name-An-Asteroid" campaign. 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 9 September 2014 ().

References

External links

(3757) Anagolay
at E.A.R.N. – The Near-Earth Asteroids Data Base (DLR)
Asteroid Lightcurve Database (LCDB)
query form

)
Dictionary of Minor Planet Names
Google books

– Observatoire de Genève, Raoul Behrend * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Anagolay 003757 Discoveries by Eleanor F. Helin Named minor planets 003757 003757 19821214