On 29 September 1924, the asteroid was first observed as A924 SB at Heidelberg Observatory, where the body's observation arc begins two days later on 1 October 1924.[1]
In January 2006, a rotational lightcurve of Oja was obtained from photometric observations by an international collaboration of astronomers including Petr Pravec at Ondřejov Observatory and Donald Pray at Carbuncle Hill Observatory (912). The consolidated lightcurve analysis gave a rotation period of 7.222 hours and a brightness variation between 0.31 and 0.39 magnitude (U=3/3).[9][a] The result supersedes a period of 7.7 hours obtained by the discoverer (Claes-Ingvar Lagerkvist) in March 1976 (U=2).[10]
Diameter and albedo
According to the survey carried out by the NEOWISE mission of NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, Oja measures between 6.94 and 8.399 kilometers in diameter and its surface has an albedo between 0.1573 and 0.31.[5][6][7][8] The Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link adopts an albedo of 0.1573 from Pravec's revised WISE data and uses a diameter of 8.38 kilometers based on an absolute magnitude of 13.01.[3]
Naming
This minor planet was named after the Swedish astronomer of Estonian descent Tarmo Oja (born 1934), who was a professor in astronomy at Uppsala University and the director of the discovering Kvistaberg Station during 1970–1999. His research included the structure of galaxies and variable stars. The official naming citation was published by the Minor Planet Center on 14 July 1992 (M.P.C. 20522).[13]
Notes
^ abcPravec (2006) web: rotation period 7.2222±0.00003 hours and a brightness amplitude of 0.39±0.01 mag in the R-band. Observation period from 31 December 2005 to 10 January 2006. Quality Code is 3. Summary figures at the LCDB and Pravec, P.; Wolf, M.; Sarounova, L. (2016) with data sheet
^ abcMasiero, Joseph R.; Grav, T.; Mainzer, A. K.; Nugent, C. R.; Bauer, J. M.; Stevenson, R.; et al. (August 2014). "Main-belt Asteroids with WISE/NEOWISE: Near-infrared Albedos". The Astrophysical Journal. 791 (2): 11. arXiv:1406.6645. Bibcode:2014ApJ...791..121M. doi:10.1088/0004-637X/791/2/121.
^ abcdPravec, Petr; Harris, Alan W.; Kusnirák, Peter; Galád, Adrián; Hornoch, Kamil (September 2012). "Absolute magnitudes of asteroids and a revision of asteroid albedo estimates from WISE thermal observations". Icarus. 221 (1): 365–387. Bibcode:2012Icar..221..365P. doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2012.07.026.