1263 Varsavia, provisional designation1933 FF, is anasteroid from the central region of theasteroid belt, approximately 40 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 23 March 1933, by Belgian astronomerSylvain Arend atUccle Observatory in Belgium.[18] It is named for the city ofWarsaw.[2]
Varsavia orbits the Sun in thecentral main-belt at a distance of 2.2–3.2 AU once every 4 years and 4 months (1,589 days). Its orbit has aneccentricity of 0.19 and aninclination of 29° with respect to theecliptic.[1] As noprecoveries were taken, and no prior identifications were made, the body'sobservation arc begins with its official discovery observation at Uccle in 1933.[18]
In April 2003, the first rotationallightcurve ofVarsavia was obtained by American astronomerBrian Warner at his Palmer Divide Station in Colorado. Revised data gave a well-definedrotation period of 7.1639 hours with a brightness variation of 0.15magnitude (U=3).[12][a]
Another well defined period of 7.1680 hours (Δ0.15 mag) was derived from photometric observations taken by Australian astronomer Julian Oey at Leura Observatory in February 2011 (U=3).[b] Concurring results were also obtained byRobert Stephens in April 2003 (7.231 h; Δ0.15 mag;U=2),[14] from thePalomar Transient Factory in June 2012 (7.1659 h; Δ0.28 mag;U=2),[13] and by the "Spanish Photometric Asteroid Analysis Group" (OBAS) in May 2016 (7.163 h; Δ0.12 mag;U=3-).[11] Observations made with theTESS space telescope in 2018 gave a period of 7.1615 hours with an amplitude of 0.05 magnitude (U=2).[19]
According to the surveys carried out by the Infrared Astronomical SatelliteIRAS, the JapaneseAkari satellite, and NASA'sWide-field Infrared Survey Explorer with its subsequentNEOWISE mission,Varsavia measures between 34.15 and 51.44 kilometers in diameter, and its surface has analbedo between 0.042 and 0.10.[4][5][6][9][10] TheCollaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link derives an albedo of 0.0874 and adopts a diameter of 41 kilometers, obtained from modeled data and a directly observedminor planet occultation of a star.[3][7]
On July 18, 2003, a stellar occultation by 1263 Varsavia was observed at multiple sites. The measured chords yielded an equivalent diameter of41±8 km. The profile best matched a spin vector of (λp, βp) = (341°, −14°) inelliptical coordinates.[20]
Thisminor planet was named byTadeusz Banachiewicz after the Latin name of the city ofWarsaw, capital of Poland. The naming citation includes a note of thanks for the support given by the city's observatory.[2] Naming citation was first published in German byAstronomisches Rechen-Institut (RI 843).[2]
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