| Discovery[1] | |
|---|---|
| Discovered by | C. J. van Houten I. van Houten-G. T. Gehrels |
| Discovery site | Palomar Obs. |
| Discovery date | 24 September 1960 |
| Designations | |
| (1846) Bengt | |
Named after | Bengt Strömgren (Danish astronomer)[2] |
| 6553 P-L · 1951 CW1 1957 YP | |
| main-belt · (inner) | |
| Orbital characteristics[1] | |
| Epoch 4 September 2017 (JD 2458000.5) | |
| Uncertainty parameter 0 | |
| Observation arc | 58.66 yr (21,424 days) |
| Aphelion | 2.6708AU |
| Perihelion | 2.0063 AU |
| 2.3386 AU | |
| Eccentricity | 0.1421 |
| 3.58yr (1,306 days) | |
| 256.07° | |
| 0° 16m 32.16s / day | |
| Inclination | 3.1843° |
| 19.092° | |
| 75.087° | |
| Physical characteristics | |
| Dimensions | 10.998±0.080 km[3] |
| 0.047±0.005[3] | |
| 13.8[1] | |
1846 Bengt, provisional designation6553 P-L, is a darkasteroid from theinner regions of theasteroid belt, approximately 11 kilometers in diameter. Discovered by thePalomar–Leiden survey in 1960, it was named for Danish astronomerBengt Strömgren.[2]
Bengt was discovered on 24 September 1960, by Dutch astronomer coupleIngrid andCornelis van Houten in collaboration withTom Gehrels, who took the photographic plates atPalomar Observatory in California.[4]
Thesurvey designation "P-L" stands forPalomar–Leiden, named after Palomar Observatory andLeiden Observatory, which collaborated on the fruitful Palomar–Leiden survey in the 1960s. 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 withseveral thousand asteroid discoveries.[5]
The asteroid was first identified as1951 CW1 atMcDonald Observatory in 1951. Theobservation arc starts 3 years prior to its official discovery observation, with its first used identification1957 YP made atGoethe Link Observatory in 1957.[4]
Bengt orbits the Sun in theinner main-belt at a distance of 2.0–2.7 AU once every 3 years and 7 months (1,306 days). Its orbit has aneccentricity of 0.14 and aninclination of 3° with respect to theecliptic.[1]
Based on preliminary results by NASA'sWide-field Infrared Survey Explorer with its subsequentNEOWISE mission,Bengt measures 10.998 kilometers in diameter and its surface has analbedo of 0.047, which is typical for carbonaceousC-type asteroids.[3] As of 2017, no rotationallightcurve has been obtained.[6]
Thisminor planet was named after renowned Danish astronomerBengt Strömgren (1908–1987), on the occasion of his 70th birthday. He was an authority in the field ofstellar structure andstellar evolution, director of theYerkes Observatory from 1951 to 1957, and president of theInternational Astronomical Union (1970–1973).[2] The officialnaming citation was published by theMinor Planet Center on 1 November 1978 (M.P.C. 4547).[7]
