1989 Tatry, provisional designation 1955 FG, is a carbonaceous Vestian asteroid and tumbling slow rotator from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 16 kilometers in diameter.
Based on its orbital elements, the asteroid is a member of the Vesta family and classified as a carbonaceous C-type asteroid in the SMASS taxonomy. It orbits the Sun in the inner main-belt at a distance of 2.2–2.5 AU once every 3 years and 7 months (1,317 days). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.08 and an inclination of 8° with respect to the ecliptic.[1] It was first identified as 1935 UQ at the South African Union Observatory in 1935, extending the asteroid's observation arc by 20 years prior to its official discovery.[12]
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, the asteroid measures between 8.99 and 9.87 kilometers in diameter and its surface has an albedo between 0.175 and 0.262.[4][5][6][7] The Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link assumes a standard albedo for carbonaceous asteroids of 0.057 and calculates a much larger diameter of 16.8 kilometers, as the lower the albedo (reflectivity), the higher the diameter at a constant absolute magnitude (brightness).[3]
Lightcurves
Photometric measurements of the asteroid made in January 2005, by astronomer Brian D. Warner at his Palmer Divide Observatory, Colorado, gave a lightcurve with a period of 39.9±0.1 hours and a brightness variation of below 0.22±0.02 in magnitude. However, the data was incomplete, so the period is considered suspect (U=2-).[9] Further measurements made in October 2007, by Adrián Galád, Leonard Kornoš and Štefan Gajdoš at Modra Observatory in Slovakia, showed a much longer period of 131.3±0.2 hours with a brightness variation of 0.5 in magnitude (U=2).[10] In March 2009, a fragmentary lightcurve obtained by French amateur astronomer Pierre Antonini gave a period of 24 hours (U=1).[8]
Tumbler
The observers also detected a non-principal axis rotation seen in distinct rotational cycles in successive order. This is commonly known as tumbling.[3][10][13]Tatry is one of a group of less than 200 bodies known to be is such a state (also see List of tumblers).
Naming
This minor planet is named after the location of the discovering observatory, High Tatras (Slovak: Vysoké Tatry), the highest mountain range in northern Slovakia.[2] The approved naming citation was published by the Minor Planet Center on 1 February 1980 (M.P.C. 5183).[14]
^ abcdUsui, Fumihiko; Kuroda, Daisuke; Müller, Thomas G.; Hasegawa, Sunao; Ishiguro, Masateru; Ootsubo, Takafumi; et al. (October 2011). "Asteroid Catalog Using Akari: AKARI/IRC Mid-Infrared Asteroid Survey". Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan. 63 (5): 1117–1138. Bibcode:2011PASJ...63.1117U. doi:10.1093/pasj/63.5.1117. (online, AcuA catalog p. 153)
