| Discovery[1][2] | |
|---|---|
| Discovered by | L. Chernykh |
| Discovery site | Crimean Astrophysical Obs. |
| Discovery date | 8 October 1969 |
| Designations | |
| (10001) Palermo | |
Named after | Palermo(Italian city)[1] |
| 1969 TM1 · 1991 RS27 | |
| main-belt[1][3] · (inner) Vestian[4][5] | |
| Orbital characteristics[3] | |
| Epoch 23 March 2018 (JD 2458200.5) | |
| Uncertainty parameter 0 | |
| Observation arc | 63.50yr (23,192 d) |
| Aphelion | 2.6955AU |
| Perihelion | 2.0579 AU |
| 2.3767 AU | |
| Eccentricity | 0.1341 |
| 3.66 yr (1,338 d) | |
| 66.907° | |
| 0° 16m 8.4s / day | |
| Inclination | 7.4247° |
| 40.160° | |
| 357.81° | |
| Physical characteristics | |
| 4.123±0.657 km[6] 4.31 km(calculated)[4] | |
| 213.368±2.0136 h[7] | |
| 0.20(assumed)[4] 0.341±0.134[6] | |
| S(assumed)[4] | |
| 13.71±0.42[8] 13.745±0.006(R)[7] 13.80[6] · 13.9[3] · 14.19[4] | |
10001 Palermo, provisional designation1969 TM1, is a Vestianasteroid and aslow rotator from the inner regions of theasteroid belt, approximately 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) in diameter. It was discovered on 8 October 1969, by Soviet–Russian astronomerLyudmila Chernykh using a 0.4-meter doubleastrograph at theCrimean Astrophysical Observatory in Nauchnij on the Crimean peninsula.[2] The asteroid is likely elongated in shape and has a longrotation period of 213 hours.[4] It was named for the Italian city ofPalermo to commemorate the discovery ofCeres two hundred years earlier.[1]
Palermo is a member of theVesta family (401).[4][5] Vestian asteroids have a composition akin to cumulateeucrites. They are thought to have originated deep within4 Vesta's crust – the family'sparent body – possibly from the largeRheasilvia crater on its southern hemisphere near the South pole, formed as a result of a subcatastrophic collision. Vesta is also the asteroid belt'ssecond-largest andsecond-most-massive body after Ceres.[9][10]
It orbits the Sun in theinner asteroid belt at a distance of 2.1–2.7 AU once every 3 years and 8 months (1,338 days;semi-major axis of 2.38 AU). Its orbit has aneccentricity of 0.13 and aninclination of 7° with respect to theecliptic.[3] The body'sobservation arc begins with aprecovery taken at thePalomar Observatory in July 1954, more than 12 years prior to its official discovery observation at Nauchnij.[1]
Palermo is an assumedS-type,[4] while the overallspectral type for members of the Vesta family is that of aV-type.[9]: 23
In September 2013, a rotationallightcurve ofPalermo was obtained fromphotometric observations in the R-band by astronomers at thePalomar Transient Factory in California. Lightcurve analysis gave an exceptionally longrotation period of 213.368 hours with a high brightness amplitude of 0.97magnitude, indicative for an elongated shape (U=2).[7]
Palermo is aslow rotator as most asteroids have periods shorter than 20 hours. There are more than 600 known slow rotators with a spin rate of more than 100 hours.
According to the survey carried out by theNEOWISE mission of NASA'sWide-field Infrared Survey Explorer,Palermo measures 4.12 kilometers in diameter and its surface has a highalbedo of 0.34.[6] TheCollaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link assumes a standard albedo for stony asteroids of 0.20 and calculates a diameter of 4.31 kilometers based on anabsolute magnitude of 14.19.[4]
Thisminor planet was named after the Italian city ofPalermo, capital ofSicily and location of thePalermo Observatory, where the dwarf planet and first asteroidCeres was discovered byGiuseppe Piazzi on 1 January 1801. The official naming citation was published by theMinor Planet Center on the 200th anniversary of that discovery on 9 January 2001 (M.P.C. 41937).[1][2][11]
