_van_den_Bos.png) van den Bos modeled from itslightcurve | |
| Discovery[1] | |
|---|---|
| Discovered by | H. E. Wood |
| Discovery site | Johannesburg Obs. |
| Discovery date | 4 August 1926 |
| Designations | |
| (1663) van den Bos | |
Named after | Willem van den Bos (astronomer)[2] |
| 1926 PE · 1928 DD 1936 OM · 1948 BE 1948 EG1 · 1949 KE 1950 XD · 1963 SC | |
| main-belt · Flora[3] | |
| Orbital characteristics[1] | |
| Epoch 4 September 2017 (JD 2458000.5) | |
| Uncertainty parameter 0 | |
| Observation arc | 88.62 yr (32,370 days) |
| Aphelion | 2.6437AU |
| Perihelion | 1.8357 AU |
| 2.2397 AU | |
| Eccentricity | 0.1804 |
| 3.35yr (1,224 days) | |
| 33.128° | |
| 0° 17m 38.76s / day | |
| Inclination | 5.3617° |
| 83.196° | |
| 275.24° | |
| Physical characteristics | |
| Dimensions | 7.58±0.67 km[4] 11.697±0.048 km[5] 12.25 km(derived)[3] 13.537±0.339 km[6] |
| 155±5 h(wrong)[7] 740±10h[8][9] | |
| 0.1708±0.0178[5] 0.184±0.025[6] 0.2045(derived)[3] 0.255±0.022[10] 0.406±0.074[4] | |
| S[3][11] | |
| 11.80[6] · 11.86±0.28[11] · 11.9[1][3] · 12.2[4][5] | |
1663 van den Bos, provisional designation1926 PE, is a stony Florianasteroid and an exceptionallyslow rotator from the inner regions of theasteroid belt, approximately 12 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 4 August 1926, by English astronomerHarry Edwin Wood atJohannesburg Observatory in South Africa.[12] It was later named after astronomerWillem Hendrik van den Bos.[2]
TheS-type asteroid is a member of theFlora family, a large group of stony asteroids in the main-belt. It orbits the Sun at a distance of 1.8–2.6 AU once every 3 years and 4 months (1,224 days). Its orbit has aneccentricity of 0.18 and aninclination of 5° with respect to theecliptic.[1]
In March 2082,van den Bos will pass29 Amphitrite at a distance of 0.0065 AU (972,000 km).[citation needed] The body'sobservation arc begins with a post-recovery observation taken at Johannesburg in 1936, when it was also identified as1936 OM, which is a full decade after its official discovery observation from 1926.[12]
In October 2010, a rotationallightcurve ofvan den Bos was obtained from photometric observations by astronomersRobert Stephens andDavid Higgins. It gave arotation period of 740 hours with a brightness variation of 0.80magnitude (U=3-).[8][9] It is one of the slowest rotating minor planets(seelist) and a suspected tumbler, that has a non-principal axis rotation. At the same time, photometric observations at the Shadowbox Observatory gave an alternative, yet ambiguous period of 155 hours with an amplitude of 0.5 magnitude (U=1).[7]
According to the surveys carried out by the JapaneseAkari satellite and NASA'sWide-field Infrared Survey Explorer with its subsequentNEOWISE mission,van den Bos measures between 7.58 and 13.54 kilometers in diameter, and its surface has analbedo between 0.171 and 0.255.[4][5][6][10] TheCollaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link derives an albedo of 0.2045 and a diameter of 12.25 kilometers using an absolute magnitude of 11.9.[3]
Thisminor planet was named in honor of Dutch-born, South African astronomerWillem Hendrik van den Bos (1896–1974), former director of the Union Observatory (1941–1956) and president of theAstronomical Society of South Africa (1943–1955). He made visual micrometric observations and discovered thousands ofdouble stars.[2] The officialnaming citation was published by theMinor Planet Center on 1 July 1972 (M.P.C. 3297).[13]
