This minor planet was named for the Japanese city of Kani, home of the discoverer, located in the countryside of Japan's Gifu Prefecture, approximately 30 kilometers north of Nagoya, the country's third largest city. Kani is situated on the Kiso riverside, which is referred to as the Japan Rhine because of its similarities to the Rhine in Europe.[2] The official naming citation was published by the Minor Planet Center on 11 March 1990 (M.P.C. 16045).[12]
In October 2008, two rotational lightcurves of this asteroid were obtained from photometric observations made at the Golden Hill Observatory in Stourton Caundle and the Palmer Divide Observatory in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The lightcurves gave an identical rotation period of 5.7279±0.0001 hours and a brightness variation of 0.75 ± 0.02 in magnitude (U=3/3).[9][a] Observations at the Palomar Transient Factory and revised shape-models have since confirmed the body's rotation period.[7][10]
Diameter and albedo
According to the space-based surveys carried out by the Japanese Akari satellite and the NEOWISE mission of NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, the asteroid measures 15.7 and 14.2 kilometers in diameter, respectively.[4][5][6] Conversely, the Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link calculates a diameter of only 7.5 kilometers, due to an assumed albedo of 0.20, which is untypically high for a carbonaceous asteroid.[3]
^ 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)
^ abHanuš, J.; Ďurech, J.; Oszkiewicz, D. A.; Behrend, R.; Carry, B.; Delbo, M.; et al. (February 2016). "New and updated convex shape models of asteroids based on optical data from a large collaboration network". Astronomy and Astrophysics. 586: A108. arXiv:1510.07422. Bibcode:2016A&A...586A.108H. doi:10.1051/0004-6361/201527441. ISSN0004-6361.