52266 Van Flandern ( provisional designation ) is a stony Phocaea

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 4 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 10 January 1986, by American astronomers

Carolyn Carolyn is a female given name, a variant of Caroline. Other spellings include Karolyn, Carolyne, Carolynn or Carolynne. Caroline itself is one of the feminine forms of Charles. List of Notable People *Carolyn Bennett (born 1950), Canadian pol ...

and Eugene 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, United States. The asteroid was later named for American astronomer

Tom Van Flandern Thomas C. Van Flandern (June 26, 1940 – January 9, 2009) was an American astronomer and author specializing in celestial mechanics. Van Flandern had a career as a professional scientist, but was noted as an outspoken proponent of certain fring ...

Orbit and classification

Van Flandern is a member of the

Phocaea family The Phocaea family ( ; adj. ''Phocaean''; ) is a collisional family of asteroids located between 2.25 and 2.5 AU in the inner region of the asteroid belt. Phocaea asteroids are of stony S-type composition and have orbits with eccentricities ...

(), a family of stony asteroids with similar orbital characteristics. It orbits the Sun in the inner main-belt at a distance of 1.8–2.8 AU once every 3 years and 7 months (1,303 days). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.22 and an inclination of 24 ° with respect to the ecliptic. The asteroid's observation arc begins 11 years prior to its official discovery observation, with its identification as at the Karl Schwarzschild Observatory in February 1975.

Physical characteristics

Van Flandern has been characterized as a common S-type asteroid by Pan-STARRS photometric survey.

Lightcurves

In January and February 2011, four rotational lightcurves of Van Flandern were obtained from photometric observations at the Via Capote Observatory , the

Palomar Transient Factory The Palomar Transient Factory (PTF, obs. code: I41), was an astronomical survey using a wide-field survey camera designed to search for optical transient and variable sources such as variable stars, supernovae, asteroids and comets. The projec ...

, and the Australian Oakley Southern Sky Observatory (), as well as by astronomer

René Roy René Roy may refer to: * René Roy (economist) * René Roy (chemist) * René Roy (astronomer) 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 ...

at his Blauvac Observatory () in France. 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 ...

between 9.65 and 9.89 hours with a brightness variation between 0.52 and 0.61 magnitude ().

Diameter and albedo

According to the survey carried out by NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer with its subsequent NEOWISE mission, Van Flandern measures 3.47 and 4.42 kilometers in diameter and its surface has an albedo of 0.30 and 0.249, respectively. The ''Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link'' assumes an albedo of 0.23 – derived from

25 Phocaea Phocaea (minor planet designation: 25 Phocaea) is a stony asteroid from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 75 kilometers in diameter. It is the parent body of the Phocaea family. Discovered by Jean Chacornac in 1853, it was n ...

, the family's most massive member and namesake – and calculates a diameter of 4.6 kilometers with an absolute magnitude of 13.9.

Naming

This minor planet was named in memory of American astronomer

(1940–2009), expert in lunar occultations and on the dynamics of binary minor planets at USNO in the 1970s. Van Flandern also participated in the refinement of the

Global Positioning System The Global Positioning System (GPS), originally Navstar GPS, is a satellite-based radionavigation system owned by the United States government and operated by the United States Space Force. It is one of the global navigation satellite sy ...

and published the ''Meta Research Bulletin'' for non-mainstream views on cosmology. 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 9 February 2009 ().

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:Van Flandern 052266 Discoveries by Carolyn S. Shoemaker Discoveries by Eugene Merle Shoemaker Named minor planets 19860110