| Discovery[1] | |
|---|---|
| Discovered by | C. J. van Houten I. van Houten-G. T. Gehrels |
| Discovery site | Palomar Obs. |
| Discovery date | 29 September 1973 |
| Designations | |
| (10979) Fristephenson | |
Named after | Francis Richard Stephenson[1] (British historian of astronomy) |
| 4171 T-2 · 4386 T-3 | |
| main-belt[1][2] · (inner) Sulamitis[3] | |
| Orbital characteristics[2] | |
| Epoch 23 March 2018 (JD 2458200.5) | |
| Uncertainty parameter 0 | |
| Observation arc | 44.52yr (16,260 d) |
| Aphelion | 2.6597AU |
| Perihelion | 2.2555 AU |
| 2.4576 AU | |
| Eccentricity | 0.0822 |
| 3.85 yr (1,407 d) | |
| 292.96° | |
| 0° 15m 20.88s / day | |
| Inclination | 5.5613° |
| 138.32° | |
| 122.19° | |
| Physical characteristics | |
| 5.327±0.069 km[4] | |
| 0.057±0.009[4] | |
| C(SDSS-MOC)[5] | |
| 15.1[2] | |
10979 Fristephenson (provisional designation4171 T-2) is a carbonaceous Sulamitisasteroid from the inner regions of theasteroid belt, approximately 5 kilometers (3.1 miles) in diameter. It was discovered during thePalomar–Leiden Trojan survey on 29 September 1973, byIngrid andCornelis van Houten at Leiden, andTom Gehrels atPalomar Observatory in California, United States. The darkC-type asteroid was named for British historian of astronomyFrancis Richard Stephenson.[1]
Fristephenson is a member of theSulamitis family (408),[3] a smallfamily of 300 known carbonaceous asteroids named after752 Sulamitis.[6] It orbits the Sun in theinner main-belt at a distance of 2.3–2.7 AU once every 3 years and 10 months (1,407 days;semi-major axis of 2.46 AU). Its orbit has aneccentricity of 0.08 and aninclination of 6° with respect to theecliptic.[2] The body'sobservation arc begins at Palomar on 19 September 1973, ten days after its official discovery observation.[1]
Thesurvey designation "T-2" stands for the secondPalomar–Leiden Trojan survey, named after the fruitful collaboration of the Palomar andLeiden Observatory during the 1960s and 1970s. Gehrels used Palomar'sSamuel Oschin telescope (also known as the 48-inch Schmidt Telescope), and shipped thephotographic plates to Ingrid and Cornelis van Houten at Leiden Observatory whereastrometry was carried out. The trio are credited with the discovery ofseveral thousand asteroid discoveries.[7]
Fristephenson has anabsolute magnitude of 15.1.[2] Based on the Moving Object Catalog (MOC) of theSloan Digital Sky Survey, the asteroid has aspectral type of a carbonaceousC-type asteroid,[5] which agrees with its classification into the Sulamitis family,[6] as well as with its lowGeometric albedo measured by theWide-field Infrared Survey Explorer.[2] As of 2018, no rotationallightcurve has been obtained fromphotometric observations. The body'srotation period,pole and shape remain unknown.[2]
According to the survey carried out by theNEOWISE mission of NASA's WISE telescope, Fristephenson measures 5.327 kilometers in diameter and its surface has analbedo of 0.057.[4]
Thisminor planet was named afterFrancis Richard Stephenson (born 1941), a Britishhistorian of astronomy atDurham University. The official naming citation was published by theMinor Planet Center on 26 November 2004 (M.P.C. 53174).[8]
