1376 Michelle, provisional designation 1935 UH, is a stony Florian asteroid from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 8 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 29 October 1935, by French astronomer Guy Reiss at the North African Algiers Observatory in Algeria.[12] It is named for the discoverer's daughter, Michelle Reiss.[2]
Classification and orbit
Michelle is a member of the Flora family, one of the largest populations of stony S-type asteroids in the entire main-belt. It orbits the Sun at a distance of 1.7–2.7 AU once every 3 years and 4 months (1,215 days). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.22 and an inclination of 4° with respect to the ecliptic.[1]Michelle was first identified as 1931 JK at Lowell Observatory in 1931. The body's observation arc, however, begins with its official discovery observation at Algiers.[12]
Lightcurve
In October 2008, a group of French and Japanese astronomers obtained two rotational light-curves of Michelle from photometric observations. Light-curve analysis gave a well defined rotation period of 5.9748 and 5.9766 hours with a brightness variation of 0.20 and 0.13 magnitude, respectively (U=3/3).[8][9] The results concur with a period of 5.9769 hours obtained by a group of Polish astronomers in April 2004 (U=2),[10] and with a period of 6.0 hours measured by JPL-photometrist Wiesław Wiśniewski in the 1980s (U=2+).[11]
Diameter and albedo
According to the 2015-published results by NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer with its subsequent NEOWISE mission, Michelle measures 9.12 kilometers in diameter and its surface has an albedo of 0.28,[7] while preliminary results gave a diameter of 7.1 kilometers and an albedo of 0.267.[4][5] The Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link adopts an albedo of 0.263 and a diameter of 7.10 kilometers, taken from Petr Pravec's 2012-revised WISE results.[3][6]
