Begzhigitova is a member of the Flora family (402),[3][4] a giant asteroid family and the largest family of stony asteroids in the main belt.[10]: 23 It orbits the Sun in the inner asteroid belt at a distance of 1.9–2.5 AU once every 3 years and 4 months (1,211 days). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.15 and an inclination of 4° with respect to the ecliptic.[1]
The body's observation arc begins with its first identification as 1990 TD3 at Palomar Observatory in October 1990, almost 9 years prior to its official discovery observation at Socorro.[9]
In February 2008, a rotational lightcurve of Begzhigitova at an apparent magnitude of only 17 was obtained from photometric observations at Modra Observatory in the Czech Republic. Lightcurve analysis gave a rotation period of 5.341 hours with a brightness amplitude of 0.3 magnitude (U=2).[7] However a longer period can not be ruled out.[7]
The Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link assumes an albedo of 0.24 – derived from 8 Flora, the parent body of the Flora family – and calculates a diameter of 2.97 kilometers based on an absolute magnitude of 14.8.[3]
Naming
This minor planet was named after Akmaral Begzhigitova (born 1985), an Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) awardee in 2003. The Ceres Connection program names minor planets in honor of students in fifth through twelfth grades and their teachers. She was awarded 4th place for her mathematics team project. At the time, Begzhigitova attended the Institute of Mathematics, Almaty, Kazakhstan.[2] The official naming citation was published by the Minor Planet Center on 14 June 2004 (M.P.C. 52172).[11]