10972 Merbold
Asteroid (10972) Merbold |
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Properties of the orbit ( animation ) | |
Orbit type | Main belt asteroid |
Major semi-axis | 2.4491 AU |
eccentricity | 0.0933 |
Perihelion - aphelion | 2.2207 AU - 2.6776 AU |
Inclination of the orbit plane | 2.3252 ° |
Length of the ascending node | 241.2149 ° |
Argument of the periapsis | 340.2056 ° |
Time of passage of the perihelion | April 12, 2018 |
Sidereal period | 3.83 a |
Physical Properties | |
Medium diameter | 5.297 ± 0.121 km |
Albedo | 0.229 ± 0.026 |
Absolute brightness | 13.8 mag |
history | |
Explorer |
Cornelis Johannes van Houten , Ingrid van Houten-Groeneveld , Tom Gehrels |
Date of discovery | 29th September 1973 |
Another name | 1188 T-2 , 1991 GM 5 , 2424 T-3 |
Source: Unless otherwise stated, the data comes from JPL Small-Body Database Browser . The affiliation to an asteroid family is automatically determined from the AstDyS-2 database . Please also note the note on asteroid items. |
(10972) Merbold is an asteroid of the main belt that was discovered on September 29, 1973 by the Dutch astronomer couple Cornelis Johannes van Houten and Ingrid van Houten-Groeneveld . The discovery was made during the 2nd Trojan survey, during which Tom Gehrels surveyed field plates recorded with the 120 cm Oschin Schmidt telescope of the Palomar observatory at the University of Leiden , 13 years after the start of the Palomar-Leiden- Surveys .
The asteroid was named on May 20, 2008 after the German physicist and former astronaut Ulf Merbold (* 1941), who was the second German in space in 1983 and repeated this in 1988. In 1994 he spent four weeks on the Russian Mir space station , making him the only German to have done three space missions.
See also
Web links
- (10972) Merbold in the database of the "Asteroids - Dynamic Site" (AstDyS-2, English).
- (10972) Merbold in the Small-Body Database of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory .
- Discovery Circumstances of (10972) Merbold according to the Minor Planet Center of the International Astronomical Union at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge , Massachusetts (English)