10972 Merbold

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Asteroid
(10972) Merbold
Properties of the orbit ( animation )
Epoch:  April 27, 2019 ( JD 2,458,600.5)
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

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