2882 Tedesco, provisional designation 1981 OG, is a Themistian asteroid from the outer regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 22 kilometers (14 miles) in diameter. It was discovered on 26 July 1981, by astronomer Edward Bowell at the Anderson Mesa Station near Flagstaff, Arizona.[1] The likely elongated C-type asteroid has a rotation period of 19.8 hours.[4] It was named for American astronomer Ed Tedesco.[1]
Orbit and classification
Tedesco is a Themistian asteroid that belongs to the Themis family (602),[4][3] one of the largest families of carbonaceous asteroids in the main belt. The family is named after its parent body 24 Themis.[12]
Tedesco orbits the Sun in the outer asteroid belt at a distance of 2.5–3.8 AU once every 5 years and 7 months (2,045 days; semi-major axis of 3.15 AU). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.19 and an inclination of 0° with respect to the ecliptic.[2] The body's observation arc begins with its first observation as 1936 QG at Heidelberg and Konkoly Observatory in August 1936, nearly 45 years prior to its official discovery observation at Anderson Mesa.[1]
In June 2014, a rotational lightcurve of Tedesco was obtained from photometric observations by Maurice Clark at Texas Tech's Preston Gott Observatory. Lightcurve analysis gave a well-defined rotation period of 19.805 hours with a high brightness amplitude of 0.76 magnitude, indicative of a non-spheroidal shape (U=3).[8] A previous measurement from October 2010 by astronomers at the Palomar Transient Factory in California gave a similar period of 19.815 with an equally high brightness variation of 0.65 magnitude.(U=2).[9]
Diameter and albedo
According to the survey carried out by the NEOWISE mission of NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, Tedesco measures between 20.89 and 24.93 kilometers in diameter and its surface has an albedo between 0.06 and 0.084,[5][6][7] while the Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link assumes an albedo of 0.08 and calculates a diameter of 21.48 kilometers based on an absolute magnitude of 11.7.[4]
^ abcdNugent, C. R.; Mainzer, A.; Masiero, J.; Bauer, J.; Cutri, R. M.; Grav, T.; et al. (December 2015). "NEOWISE Reactivation Mission Year One: Preliminary Asteroid Diameters and Albedos". The Astrophysical Journal. 814 (2): 13. arXiv:1509.02522. Bibcode:2015ApJ...814..117N. doi:10.1088/0004-637X/814/2/117.
^ abcdefMasiero, Joseph R.; Mainzer, A. K.; Grav, T.; Bauer, J. M.; Cutri, R. M.; Nugent, C.; et al. (November 2012). "Preliminary Analysis of WISE/NEOWISE 3-Band Cryogenic and Post-cryogenic Observations of Main Belt Asteroids". The Astrophysical Journal Letters. 759 (1): 5. arXiv:1209.5794. Bibcode:2012ApJ...759L...8M. doi:10.1088/2041-8205/759/1/L8.
^ abClark, Maurice (January 2015). "Asteroid Photometry from the Preston Gott Observatory". The Minor Planet Bulletin. 42 (1): 15–20. Bibcode:2015MPBu...42...15C. ISSN1052-8091.
^ abcWaszczak, Adam; Chang, Chan-Kao; Ofek, Eran O.; Laher, Russ; Masci, Frank; Levitan, David; et al. (September 2015). "Asteroid Light Curves from the Palomar Transient Factory Survey: Rotation Periods and Phase Functions from Sparse Photometry". The Astronomical Journal. 150 (3): 35. arXiv:1504.04041. Bibcode:2015AJ....150...75W. doi:10.1088/0004-6256/150/3/75.
^ abcVeres, Peter; Jedicke, Robert; Fitzsimmons, Alan; Denneau, Larry; Granvik, Mikael; Bolin, Bryce; et al. (November 2015). "Absolute magnitudes and slope parameters for 250,000 asteroids observed by Pan-STARRS PS1 - Preliminary results". Icarus. 261: 34–47. arXiv:1506.00762. Bibcode:2015Icar..261...34V. doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2015.08.007.
