132524 APL

132524 APL

Asteroid 132524 APL seen by New Horizons from 1.34 million kilometers in June 2006
Discovery [1]
Discovered by LINEAR
Discovery site MRO
Discovery date 9 May 2002
Designations
MPC designation 132524 APL
Named after
 Applied Physics Laboratory
2002 JF56
main-belt
Orbital characteristics [1]
Epoch 13 January 2016 (JD 2457400.5)
Uncertainty parameter 0
Observation arc 9225 days (25.26 yr)
Aphelion 3.3152 AU (495.95 Gm)
Perihelion 1.8897 AU (282.70 Gm)
2.6025 AU (389.33 Gm)
Eccentricity 0.27388
4.20 yr (1533.5 d)
38.076°
0.23476°/day
Inclination 4.1593°
51.694°
262.13°
Earth MOID 0.879478 AU (131.5680 Gm)
Jupiter MOID 1.99285 AU (298.126 Gm)
Physical characteristics
Dimensions 2.3 km
S[2]
15.4

    132524 APL—previously known by its provisional designation, 2002 JF56—is an asteroid in the asteroid belt approximately 2.3 kilometers across. It was discovered on 9 May 2002 by the Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research (LINEAR) Team at Socorro, NM.[1] The New Horizons probe flew by it at a distance of approximately 102,000 kilometers on 13 June 2006. The spectra obtained by New Horizons show that APL is a stony S-type asteroid.[2] The asteroid orbits the Sun in a somewhat eccentric orbit at a distance of 1.9–3.3 AU once every 4.2 years. Its orbit is tilted off the ecliptic by 4 degrees.[1]

    New Horizons was not intended to fly by APL, and the flyby was just a coincidence. Alan Stern, principal investigator for New Horizons, named the asteroid in reference to the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL), which runs the mission.[3]

    References

    1. 1 2 3 4 "JPL Small-Body Database Browser: 132524 APL (2002 JF56)" (2015-08-22 last obs.). Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Retrieved 26 March 2016.
    2. 1 2 CBET 547
    3. ↑ Buckley, Michael (2007-03-05). "APL Rocks! Asteroid Named After JHU Applied Physics Lab". The JHU Gazette. Archived from the original on 2009-04-30. Retrieved 2009-04-20.

    Further reading

    External links


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