6460 Bassano, provisional designation , is a stony Flora

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 The asteroid belt is a torus-shaped region in the Solar System, located roughly between the orbits of the planets Jupiter and Mars. It contains a great many solid, irregularly shaped bodies, of many sizes, but much smaller than planets, called ...

, approximately 4.5 kilometers in diameter. The asteroid was discovered on 26 October 1992, by Italian amateur astronomers

Ulisse Quadri 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 nu ...

and Luca Strabla at the

Bassano Bresciano Observatory Bassano Bresciano (Brescian: ) is a ''comune'' in the province of Brescia, in Lombardy. As of 2011 Bassano Bresciano had a population of 2,237. Observatory The private Bassano Bresciano Observatory or Astronomical Observatory of Bassano Bresc ...

in northern Italy. It was named for the Italian village of

Bassano Bresciano Bassano Bresciano (Brescian: ) is a ''comune'' in the province of Brescia, in Lombardy. As of 2011 Bassano Bresciano had a population of 2,237. Observatory The private Bassano Bresciano Observatory or Astronomical Observatory of Bassano Bresci ...

Orbit and classification

The

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 ...

is a member of the

Flora family The Flora family (''adj. Florian''; ; also known as ''Ariadne family'') is a prominent family of stony asteroids located in the inner region of the asteroid belt. It is one of the largest families with more than 13,000 known members, or approx ...

, one of the largest groups of stony asteroids in the main-belt. ''Bassano'' 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 2.0–2.5 AU once every 3 years and 5 months (1,239 days). Its orbit has an

eccentricity Eccentricity or eccentric may refer to: * Eccentricity (behavior), odd behavior on the part of a person, as opposed to being "normal" Mathematics, science and technology Mathematics * Off-center, in geometry * Eccentricity (graph theory) of a v ...

of 0.11 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 3 ° with respect to the

ecliptic The ecliptic or ecliptic plane is the orbital plane of the Earth around the Sun. From the perspective of an observer on Earth, the Sun's movement around the celestial sphere over the course of a year traces out a path along the ecliptic again ...

. In October 1985, it was first identified as at the French Caussols Observatory, 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 7 years prior to its official discovery observation at Bassano Bresciano.

Physical characteristics

Rotation period

Two rotational

lightcurve In astronomy, a light curve is a graph of light intensity of a celestial object or region as a function of time, typically with the magnitude of light received on the y axis and with time on the x axis. The light is usually in a particular frequ ...

s of ''Bassano'' were obtained from photometric observations at 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 ...

in August 2012. 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 and hours with a brightness variation of 0.38 and 0.29

magnitude Magnitude may refer to: Mathematics *Euclidean vector, a quantity defined by both its magnitude and its direction *Magnitude (mathematics), the relative size of an object *Norm (mathematics), a term for the size or length of a vector *Order of ...

, respectively ().

Diameter and albedo

According to the survey carried out by the

NEOWISE Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE, observatory code C51, Explorer 92 and SMEX-6) is a NASA infrared astronomy space telescope in the Explorers Program. It was launched in December 2009, and placed in hibernation mode in February 2011, ...

mission of NASA's space-based

Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE, observatory code C51, Explorer 92 and SMEX-6) is a NASA infrared astronomy space telescope in the Explorers Program. It was launched in December 2009, and placed in hibernation mode in February 2011, ...

, ''Bassano'' measures 4.3 kilometers in diameter and its surface has a high

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 ...

of 0.39. The ''Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link'' assumes a lower albedo of 0.24 – derived from

8 Flora Flora (minor planet designation: 8 Flora) is a large, bright main-belt asteroid. It is the innermost ''large'' asteroid: no asteroid closer to the Sun has a diameter above 25 kilometres (20% that of Flora), and not until 20-km 149 Medusa was dis ...

, the principal body and namesake of its orbital family – and hence calculates a larger diameter of 4.9 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 for the location of the discovering observatory,

, an ancient village in northern Italy. The historic village was under Longobard and Frank control during the early Middle Ages, and then ruled by the

House of Sforza The House of Sforza () was a ruling family of Renaissance Italy, based in Milan. They acquired the Duchy of Milan following the extinction of the Visconti family in the mid-15th century, Sforza rule ending in Milan with the death of the last me ...

and the Venice republic. In the 16th century the former marshland was regained by the two Italian agronomists

Camillo Tarello Camillo Tarello (c. 1513 – 1573) was a Venetian agronomist, known as author of ''Ricordo d'agricoltura di M. Camillo Tarello'', and for his patent of a new system in agriculture based on crop rotation granted by the Venetian Senate in 1566. ...

and

Agostino Gallo Agostino Gallo (14 May 1499 – 6 September 1570) was an Italian agronomist. Although not a man of letters, Agostino Gallo contributed greatly to the store of written agricultural knowledge of his time. He improved methods of cultivating Ita ...

. Monuments in the village include Luzzago's palace and Brunelli's villa. Its church has a

Via Crucis The Stations of the Cross or the Way of the Cross, also known as the Way of Sorrows or the Via Crucis, refers to a series of images depicting Jesus Christ on the day of his crucifixion and accompanying prayers. The stations grew out of imitati ...

credited to the school of Venetian painter

Giovanni Tiepolo Giovanni Tiepolo ( la, Ioannes Thiepolus; 1570 – 1631) was Patriarch of Venice from 1619 to his death. Life He was born in Venice on 12 April 1570 to the patrician Agostino di Nicolò e da Laura Bragadin di Giovanni. As soon as he was of age, ...

, one of the great Old Masters of that period. 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 1995 ().

References

External links

Bassano Bresciano Astronomical Observatory
– homepage
Asteroid Lightcurve Database (LCDB)
query form

)
Dictionary of Minor Planet Names
Google books

– Observatoire de Genève, Raoul Behrend

– Minor Planet Center * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bassano 006460 Named minor planets 19921026