46610 Bésixdouze (;

provisional designation Provisional designation in astronomy is the naming convention applied to astronomical objects immediately following their discovery. The provisional designation is usually superseded by a permanent designation once a reliable orbit has been calcu ...

) is a bright background

asteroid An asteroid is a minor planet—an object larger than a meteoroid that is neither a planet nor an identified comet—that orbits within the Solar System#Inner Solar System, inner Solar System or is co-orbital with Jupiter (Trojan asteroids). As ...

from the inner regions of the

asteroid belt The asteroid belt is a torus-shaped region in the Solar System, centered on the Sun and roughly spanning the space between the orbits of the planets Jupiter and Mars. It contains a great many solid, irregularly shaped bodies called asteroids ...

, approximately 2 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 15 October 1993, by Japanese amateur astronomers

Kin Endate is a Japanese amateur astronomer who has discovered hundreds of asteroids, most of them in collaboration with Kazuro Watanabe, placing him among the most prolific discoverers of minor planets. Career in astronomy Kin Endate was born in Iw ...

and Kazuro Watanabe at the

Kitami Observatory Kitami Observatory is an astronomical observatory in the Kitami-Abashiri Region Cultural Centre in eastern Hokkaidō, Japan. Its observatory code is 400. It is 0.72344 Earth radii from the rotation axis and +0.68811 Earth radii from the equatorial ...

in eastern Hokkaidō, Japan. The asteroid was named after "B-612", home of ''

The Little Prince ''The Little Prince'' (, ) is a novella written and illustrated by French writer and aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. It was first published in English and French in the United States by Reynal & Hitchcock in April 1943 and was published po ...

''.

Orbit and classification

Bésixdouze is a non-

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

asteroid from the main belt's background population. It orbits the Sun in the inner main-belt at a distance of 1.9–2.7 AU once every 3 years and 5 months (1,249 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 longe ...

of 2.27 AU). 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-Centre (geometry), center, in geometry * Eccentricity (g ...

of 0.18 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 reference plane and the orbital plane or axis of direction of the orbiting object. For a satellite orbiting the Eart ...

of 2 ° with respect to the

ecliptic The ecliptic or ecliptic plane is the orbital plane of Earth's orbit, Earth around the Sun. It was a central concept in a number of ancient sciences, providing the framework for key measurements in astronomy, astrology and calendar-making. Fr ...

. The asteroid was first identified as at

Crimea–Nauchnij The Crimean Astrophysical Observatory (CrAO, List of observatory codes, obs. code: IAU code#095, 095) is located at Nauchnij research campus, near the Central Crimean city of Bakhchysarai, on the Crimean peninsula. CrAO is often called ...

in a single image taken in September 1986.

Physical characteristics

Diameter and albedo

According to the survey carried out by the

NEOWISE Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE, observatory code C51, Explorer 92 and MIDEX-6) was a NASA infrared astronomy space telescope in the Explorers Program launched in December 2009.. . WISE discovered thousands of minor planets and nu ...

mission of NASA's

Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE, List of observatory codes, observatory code C51, Explorer 92 and MIDEX-6) was a NASA infrared astronomy Space observatory, space telescope in the Explorers Program launched in December 2009.. . WISE L ...

, Bésixdouze measures 2.064 kilometers in diameter and its surface has an

albedo Albedo ( ; ) is the fraction of sunlight that is Diffuse reflection, diffusely reflected by a body. It is measured on a scale from 0 (corresponding to a black body that absorbs all incident radiation) to 1 (corresponding to a body that reflects ...

of 0.262, which is indicative for a stony composition.

Rotation period

As of 2018, no rotational

lightcurve In astronomy, a light curve is a graph (discrete mathematics), graph of the Radiance, light intensity of a celestial object or region as a function of time, typically with the magnitude (astronomy), magnitude of light received on the ''y''-axis ...

of Bésixdouze has been obtained from photometric observations. The body's

rotation period In astronomy, the rotation period or spin period of a celestial object (e.g., star, planet, moon, asteroid) has two definitions. The first one corresponds to the '' sidereal rotation period'' (or ''sidereal day''), i.e., the time that the objec ...

, poles and shape remain unknown.

Naming

The name was suggested by F. Hemery and

Jiří Grygar Jiří Grygar (; born March 17, 1936, in Heinersdorf, Germany, now Dziewiętlice, Poland) is a Czech astronomer, popularizer of science and Kalinga Prize (1996) laureate. Career After studying physics at the Masaryk University in Brno and as ...

as a reference to the French novella ''

''. The title character lived on an asteroid named B-612, which is the number 46610 written in

hexadecimal Hexadecimal (also known as base-16 or simply hex) is a Numeral system#Positional systems in detail, positional numeral system that represents numbers using a radix (base) of sixteen. Unlike the decimal system representing numbers using ten symbo ...

notation. Bésixdouze (; "B-six-twelve") is one way to pronounce B-612 in French. Like the asteroid in ''The Little Prince'', Bésixdouze was first observed in a single night, several years before its official discovery. 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. Funct ...

on 20 November 2002 (). It says: "The decimal number 46610 translates to the hexadecimal B612, the designation of the fictitious minor planet in de St. Exupéry's 1943 novel Le Petit Prince. B612 was allegedly spotted on a single night in 1909 and reported at a meeting in 1920. The name was suggested independently by F. Hémery and J. Grygar."

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:Besixdouze 046610 Discoveries by Kazuro Watanabe Discoveries by Kin Endate Named minor planets

46610 Besixdouze ''Packardia elegans'', the elegant tailed slug moth, is a species of moth in the family Limacodidae. It is found in Canada and the United States, where it has been recorded from woodlands and forests, ranging from north-eastern Missouri to Quebec ...

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