9826 Ehrenfreund
| Discovery [1] | |
|---|---|
| Discovered by |
C. J. van Houten I. van Houten T. Gehrels |
| Discovery site | Palomar Obs. |
| Discovery date | 16 October 1977 |
| Designations | |
| MPC designation | 9826 Ehrenfreund |
Named after |
Pascale Ehrenfreund (astrophysicist)[2] |
| 2114 T-3 · 1993 VH2 | |
| main-belt · Eos [3] | |
| Orbital characteristics [1] | |
| Epoch 27 June 2015 (JD 2457200.5) | |
| Uncertainty parameter 0 | |
| Observation arc | 38.19 yr (13,949 days) |
| Aphelion | 3.2614 AU |
| Perihelion | 2.7261 AU |
| 2.9938 AU | |
| Eccentricity | 0.0894 |
| 5.18 yr (1,892 days) | |
| 145.59° | |
| Inclination | 8.9272° |
| 215.75° | |
| 110.70° | |
| Physical characteristics | |
| Dimensions | 6.94 km (calculated)[3] |
| 3.7484±0.0013 h[4] | |
| 0.14 (assumed)[3] | |
| S [3] | |
|
13.1[1] 13.55[3] | |
|
| |
9826 Ehrenfreund, provisional designation 2114 T-3, is a stony asteroid from the outer region of the asteroid belt, about 7 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 16 October 1977, by Dutch astronomer couple Ingrid and Cornelis van Houten at Leiden, on photographic plates taken by Dutch–American astronomer Tom Gehrels at the U.S. Palomar Observatory in California.[5]
The S-type asteroid is a member of the Eos family, an orbital group of more than 4,000 asteroids, which are well known for mostly being of stony composition. It orbits the Sun at a distance of 2.7–3.3 AU once every 5 years and 2 months (1,892 days). Its orbit shows an eccentricity of 0.09 and an inclination of 9 degrees from the plane of the ecliptic.[1] A photometric light-curve analysis at the Palomar Transient Factory in 2013 rendered a rotation period of 3.7484±0.0013 hours with a brightness amplitude of 0.37 in magnitude.[4] The Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link calculates a diameter of 6.9 kilometers based on an absolute magnitude of 13.55 and an assumed albedo of 0.14.[3] Although this is a relatively low albedo for a stony asteroid, it is the same albedo as for the Eos family's namesake, the asteroid 221 Eos, which is also classified as a K-type in the SMASS taxonomic scheme.
The unusual designation 2114 T-3 stands for a survey made in the search for Jupiter trojans beyond the main-belt. The team of astronomers adopted the same procedure as previously used in their fruitful and much larger Palomar–Leiden survey collaboration of the 1960s, which was named after the involved observatories at Palomar and Leiden. In both surveys, Gehrels used Palomar's Samuel Oschin telescope (also known as the 48-inch Schmidt Telescope), and shipped the photographic plates to Ingrid and Cornelis van Houten at Leiden Observatory, where astrometry was carried out. The trio of astronomers are credited with several thousand asteroid discoveries.
The minor planet was named in honour of Austrian female astrophysicist and biochemist, Pascale Ehrenfreund (b. 1960), who qualified as an expert on several space missions investigating dust and organic molecules in space.[2] Ehrenfreund has been the lead investigator at NASA Astrobiology Institute and was elected CEO of the German Aerospace Center in 2015, the first woman to lead a major research facility in Germany.[6]
References
- 1 2 3 4 "JPL Small-Body Database Browser: 9826 Ehrenfreund (2114 T-3)" (2015-12-16 last obs.). Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Retrieved January 2016.
- 1 2 Schmadel, Lutz D. (2007). Dictionary of Minor Planet Names – (9826) Ehrenfreund. Springer Berlin Heidelberg. p. 710. ISBN 978-3-540-00238-3. Retrieved January 2016.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 "LCDB Data for (9826) Ehrenfreund". Asteroid Lightcurve Database (LCDB). Retrieved January 2016.
- 1 2 Waszczak, Adam; Chang, Chan-Kao; Ofek, Eran O.; Laher, Russ; Masci, Frank; Levitan, David; et al. (September 2015). "Asteroid Light Curves from the Palomar Transient Factory Survey: Rotation Periods and Phase Functions from Sparse Photometry". The Astronomical Journal 150 (3): 35. arXiv:1504.04041. Bibcode:2015AJ....150...75W. doi:10.1088/0004-6256/150/3/75. Retrieved January 2016.
- ↑ "9826 Ehrenfreund (2114 T-3)". Minor Planet Center. Retrieved January 2016.
- ↑ "First woman to head a major German research facility". DLR – German Aerospace Center. 18 June 2015. Retrieved January 2016.
External links
- Asteroid Lightcurve Database (LCDB), query form (info)
- Dictionary of Minor Planet Names, Google books
- Asteroids and comets rotation curves, CdR – Observatoire de Genève, Raoul Behrend
- Discovery Circumstances: Numbered Minor Planets (5001)-(10000) – Minor Planet Center
- 9826 Ehrenfreund at the JPL Small-Body Database
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