3794 Sthenelos is a mid-sized
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 12 October 1985, by American astronomer
Carolyn Shoemaker 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.
The presumed
C-type asteroid 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 12.9 hours.
It was named after the Greek warrior
Sthenelus from Greek mythology.
Orbit and classification
''Sthenelos'' 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.
...
in a 1:1
orbital resonance with Jupiter. It is located in the leading
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 ...
at the Gas Giant'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 on its orbit . It is also a non-
family asteroid of the
Jovian background population.
It orbits the Sun at a distance of 4.4–6.0
AU once every 11 years and 11 months (4,338 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 5.21 AU). Its orbit has an
eccentricity of 0.15 and an
inclination of 6
° with respect to the
ecliptic.
The body's
observation arc begins with its first observation as ' at
Heidelberg Observatory in September 1949, or 36 years prior to its official discovery observation at Palomar.
Physical characteristics
''Sthenelos'' is an assumed, carbonaceous
C-type asteroid, while most larger Jupiter trojans are
D-type asteroids. It has a high
V–I color index of 1.07.
Rotation period
In August 1995, a rotational
lightcurve of ''Sthenelos'' was obtained from
photometric observations by Italian astronomer
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
Bochum 0.61-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 ESO's
La Silla Observatory in Chile. Lightcurve analysis gave a well-defined
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 amplitude of 0.27
magnitude ().
Diameter and albedo
According to the survey carried out by the
NEOWISE mission of NASA's
Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, ''Sthenelos'' measures 34.53 kilometers in diameter and its surface has an
albedo of 0.112,
while the ''Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link'' assumes a standard albedo for a carbonaceous asteroid of 0.057 and calculates a diameter of 46.30 kilometers based on an
absolute magnitude of 10.4.
Naming
This
minor planet was named from
Greek mythology after
Sthenelus, a Greek warrior and companion of
Diomedes
Diomedes (Jones, Daniel; Roach, Peter, James Hartman and Jane Setter, eds. ''Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary''. 17th edition. Cambridge UP, 2006.) or Diomede (; grc-gre, Διομήδης, Diomēdēs, "god-like cunning" or "advised by ...
during the
Trojan War. He stole
Aeneas' chariot horses and brought it back to the Greek camp. 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 27 August 1988 ().
References
External links
Asteroid Lightcurve Database (LCDB) query form
)
Dictionary of Minor Planet Names Google books
– Minor Planet Center
Asteroid 3794 Sthenelosat the Small Bodies Data Ferret
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Sthenelos
003794
Discoveries by Carolyn S. Shoemaker
Named minor planets
19851012