| Discovery[1] | |
|---|---|
| Discovered by | F. Mallia A. Maury |
| Discovery site | Campo Catino Austral Obs. |
| Discovery date | 27 August 2005 |
| Designations | |
| (152188) Morricone | |
Named after | Ennio Morricone[2] (Italian composer) |
| 2005 QP51 | |
| main-belt · (middle) background[3] · Eunomia[4] | |
| Orbital characteristics[1] | |
| Epoch 4 September 2017 (JD 2458000.5) | |
| Uncertainty parameter 0 | |
| Observation arc | 14.79 yr (5,403 days) |
| Aphelion | 3.0205AU |
| Perihelion | 2.0937 AU |
| 2.5571 AU | |
| Eccentricity | 0.1812 |
| 4.09yr (1,494 days) | |
| 269.61° | |
| 0° 14m 27.6s / day | |
| Inclination | 14.798° |
| 30.416° | |
| 29.074° | |
| Physical characteristics | |
| 2.3 km(est. at0.20)[5] 4.2 km(est. at0.06)[5] | |
| 15.6[2] · 15.7[1] | |
152188 Morricone (provisional designation2005 QP51) is a backgroundasteroid from the central region of theasteroid belt, approximately 3 kilometers (2 miles) in diameter. It was discovered on 27 August 2005, by astronomersFranco Mallia andAlain Maury at theCampo Catino Austral Observatory (CAO), San Pedro de Atacama, Chile, a robotic station of the ItalianCampo Catino Astronomical Observatory. The asteroid was named for Italian composerEnnio Morricone.[2]
When applying thehierarchical clustering method to the asteroid'sproper orbital elements, Morricone is both a non-family asteroid from the main belt'sbackground population (according to Nesvorný),[3] and a distant member of theEunomia family (according to Milani and Knežević).[4] It orbits the Sun in thecentral asteroid belt at a distance of 2.1–3.0 AU once every 4 years and 1 month (1,494 days;semi-major axis of 2.56 AU). Its orbit has aneccentricity of 0.18 and aninclination of 15° with respect to theecliptic.[1]
The body'sobservation arc begins with its observation byAMOS atHaleakala Observatory in August 2001, or four years prior to its official discovery observation by CAO at San Pedro de Atacama in Chile.[2]
The asteroid'sspectral type is unknown.[1]
Morricone has not been observed by any of the space-based surveys such as the Infrared Astronomical SatelliteIRAS, the JapaneseAkari satellite or theNEOWISE mission of NASA'sWide-field Infrared Survey Explorer. Based on a generic magnitude-to-diameter conversion, the asteroid measures 2.3 and 4.2 kilometers in diameter based on anabsolute magnitude of 15.6 and ageometric albedo of 0.06 and 0.20, which roughly correspond to a body ofcarbonaceous andstony composition, respectively (both types are common in the central asteroid belt).[2][5]
As of 2018, no rotationallightcurve of Morricone has been obtained fromphotometric observations. The body'srotation period, shape andpoles remain unknown.[1][6]
Thisminor planet was named after Italian composerEnnio Morricone (1928–2020), who wrote over 500 scores for cinema and television, including several famousSpaghetti Westerns. The official naming citation was published by theMinor Planet Center on 1 June 2007 (M.P.C. 59925).[7]
