4065 Meinel
| Discovery [1] | |
|---|---|
| Discovered by | C. J. van Houten I. van Houten T. Gehrels |
| Discovery site | Palomar Obs. |
| Discovery date | 24 September 1960 |
| Designations | |
| MPC designation | 4065 Meinel |
|
Named after
|
Aden Meinel (astronomer)[2] |
| 2820 P–L · 1976 JF6 1986 GQ1 |
|
| main-belt | |
| Orbital characteristics [1] | |
| Epoch 27 June 2015 (JD 2457200.5) | |
| Uncertainty parameter 0 | |
| Observation arc | 62.35 yr (22,772 days) |
| Aphelion | 2.4393 AU |
| Perihelion | 2.0948 AU |
| 2.2670 AU | |
| Eccentricity | 0.0759 |
| 3.41 yr (1,247 days) | |
| 262.26° | |
| Inclination | 5.1641° |
| 22.791° | |
| 102.70° | |
| Physical characteristics | |
| 14.0[1] | |
4065 Meinel, provisional designation 2820 P–L, is an asteroid from the inner regions of the asteroid belt. It was discovered on 24 September 1960, by Cornelis van Houten, Ingrid van Houten-Groeneveld and Tom Gehrels at the U.S. Palomar Observatory in California.[3] The first one to sight Meinel was Rainbow Observatory near Coonabarabran on August 14, 1953.[4]
The S-type asteroid is a member of the Flora family, one of the largest groups of stony asteroids in the main-belt. It orbits the Sun at a distance of 2.1–2.4 AU once every 3 years and 5 months (1,247 days). Its orbit shows an eccentricity of 0.08 and is tilted by 5 degrees to the plane of the ecliptic. Little is known about the asteroids size, composition, albedo and rotation, despite having a well-observed orbit with the lowest possible uncertainty (i.e. a condition code of 0) and an observation arc that spans over a period of more than 60 years.[1]
The designation P–L stands for Palomar–Leiden, named after Palomar Observatory and Leiden Observatory, which collaborated on the fruitful Palomar–Leiden survey in the 1960s. 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 are credited with several thousand asteroid discoveries.
The asteroid is named in honour of the American physicist and astronomer Aden Meinel (1922–2011).[2]
References
External links
- The Palomar-Leiden Survey of Faint Minor Planets, 1970
- 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 (1)-(5000) – Minor Planet Center
- 4065 Meinel at the JPL Small-Body Database
