6141 Durda, provisional designation is a stony Hungaria

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 slow rotator and Mars-crosser from the innermost region of the asteroid belt, approximately 3.2 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 26 December 1992, by Spacewatch at Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona, United States.

Classification and orbit

This Mars-crosser and presumed E-type asteroid is also member of the

Hungaria family The Hungaria asteroids, also known as the Hungaria group, are a dynamical group of asteroids in the asteroid belt which orbit the Sun with a semi-major axis (longest radius of an ellipse) between 1.78 and 2.00 astronomical units (AU). They are t ...

, which form the innermost dense concentration of asteroids in the

Solar System The Solar SystemCapitalization of the name varies. The International Astronomical Union, the authoritative body regarding astronomical nomenclature, specifies capitalizing the names of all individual astronomical objects but uses mixed "Solar S ...

. 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 1.6–2.1 AU once every 2 years and 5 months (895 days). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.14 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 16 ° with respect to the ecliptic. On 22 September 2154, it will pass from Mars. ''Durda'' was first identified as at Karl Schwarzschild Observatory in 1983, extending 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 ...

by 9 years prior to its official discovery observation at Kitt Peak.

Lightcurve

In October 2009, a rotational lightcurve was obtained from photometric observations by Brian Warner at the Palmer Divide Station in Colorado. Lightcurve analysis 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 magnitude (). ''Durda'' belongs to the Top 100 slow rotators known to exists.

Diameter

Based on a magnitude-to-diameter conversion, ''Durda''s generic diameter is between 3 and 7 kilometer for 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 14.4, and an assumed

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 ...

in the range of 0.05 to 0.25. Since asteroids in the

main-belt are typically of stony rather than

carbonaceous Carbon () is a chemical element with the chemical symbol, symbol C and atomic number 6. It is nonmetallic and tetravalence, tetravalent—its atom making four electrons available to form covalent bond, covalent chemical bonds. It belongs to gro ...

composition, with albedos above 0.20, ''Durda''s diameter can be estimate to measure around 4 kilometers, as the higher its albedo (reflectivity), the lower the body's diameter. The Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link assumes an albedo of 0.30 – a compromise value between 0.4 and 0.2, corresponding to the Hungaria asteroids both as family and orbital group – and calculates a diameter of 3.20 kilometers.

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 in honor of American planetary scientist Daniel D. Durda, who has researched the generation, evolution, size distribution and fragmentation of minor planets, resulting in the formation of minor-planet moons. He was especially interested in

(243) Ida I Dactyl Ida, minor planet designation 243 Ida, is an asteroid in the Koronis family of the asteroid belt. It was discovered on 29 September 1884 by Austrian astronomer Johann Palisa at Vienna Observatory and named after a nymph from Greek mytholo ...

when he was member of the ''

Galileo Galileo di Vincenzo Bonaiuti de' Galilei (15 February 1564 – 8 January 1642) was an Italian astronomer, physicist and engineer, sometimes described as a polymath. Commonly referred to as Galileo, his name was pronounced (, ). He was ...

'' mission team. Daniel Durda is also a pilot and an artist of astronomical paintings. In 2015, he was awarded the

Carl Sagan Medal The Carl Sagan Medal for Excellence in Public Communication in Planetary Science is an award established by the Division for Planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical Society to recognize and honor outstanding communication by an active plane ...

for "communicating the wonder of planetary science through visual artistry". 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 8 August 1998 ().

References

External links

Carl Sagan Medal for Excellence in Public Communication in Planetary Science

Lightcurve plot of 6141 Durda
Palmer Divide Observatory, B. D. Warner (2009)
Asteroid Lightcurve Database (LCDB)
query form

)
Dictionary of Minor Planet Names
Google books

– Observatoire de Genève, Raoul Behrend

– Minor Planet Center * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Durda 006141 006141 006141 Named minor planets 006141 19921226