1689 Floris-Jan, provisional designation 1930 SO, is a stony asteroid and a slow rotator from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 16 kilometers in diameter. Discovered by Hendrik van Gent in 1930, it was named after a contest winner of an exhibition at Leiden Observatory.
Discovery
The asteroid was discovered on 16 September 1930, by Dutch astronomer Hendrik van Gent at the Leiden Southern Station, annex to the Johannesburg Observatory in South Africa.[12] It was independently discovered by Soviet astronomer Evgenii Skvortsov at the Crimean Simeiz Observatory five days later.[2]
Orbit and classification
Floris-Jan orbits the Sun in the inner main-belt at a distance of 1.9–3.0 AU once every 3 years and 10 months (1,401 days). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.21 and an inclination of 6° with respect to the ecliptic.[1] First identified as 1926 PG at Simeiz Observatory in 1926, the body's observation arc begins 3 days after its official discovery observation at Johannesburg in 1930.[12]
Physical characteristics
Slow rotator
In the 1980s, photometric lightcurve observations already revealed that Floris-Jan is a very slow rotator with a rotation period of 145 hours and a brightness variation of 0.4 magnitude (U=3).[10] At the time, this six-day period was a new record among all minor planets with a known rotation period, and it was assumed, that Floris-Jan might also be a tumbling asteroid with a non-principal axis rotation.[3][9]
Diameter and albedo
According to the surveys carried out by the Japanese Akari satellite and NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer with its subsequent NEOWISE mission, Floris-Jan measures between 13.74 and 16.12 kilometers in diameter, and its surface has an albedo between 0.127 and 0.184.[4][5][6] The Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link agrees with Petr Pravec's revised WISE-data, that is an albedo of 0.135 and a diameter of 16.21 kilometers based on an absolute magnitude of 11.74.[3]
^Schmadel, Lutz D. "Appendix – Publication Dates of the MPCs". Dictionary of Minor Planet Names – Addendum to Fifth Edition (2006–2008). Springer Berlin Heidelberg. p. 221. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-01965-4. ISBN978-3-642-01964-7.
