_Whipple.png) Modelled shape ofWhipple from itslightcurve | |
| Discovery[1] | |
|---|---|
| Discovered by | Harvard College Obs. |
| Discovery site | Agassiz Stn. |
| Discovery date | 2 February 1975 |
| Designations | |
| (1940) Whipple | |
Named after | Fred L. Whipple (American astronomer)[2] |
| 1975 CA · 1932 AD 1950 LH · 1962 SH 1970 EC1 · 1971 KD1 1971 KN · A916 AD | |
| main-belt · (outer)[3] | |
| Orbital characteristics[1] | |
| Epoch 4 September 2017 (JD 2458000.5) | |
| Uncertainty parameter 0 | |
| Observation arc | 54.50 yr (19,907 days) |
| Aphelion | 3.2556AU |
| Perihelion | 2.8656 AU |
| 3.0606 AU | |
| Eccentricity | 0.0637 |
| 5.35yr (1,956 days) | |
| 18.583° | |
| 0° 11m 2.76s / day | |
| Inclination | 6.5587° |
| 263.80° | |
| 179.82° | |
| Physical characteristics | |
| 32.57±0.43 km[4] 33.83 km(derived)[3] 33.87±1.3 km[5] 36.34±0.66 km[6] 37.481±0.250 km[7] 40.431±0.471 km[8] | |
| 5.78±0.03 h[9] 6.953±0.003 h[10] | |
| 0.0430±0.0097[8] 0.054±0.002[6] 0.0560(derived)[3] 0.060±0.009[4] 0.0613±0.005[5] | |
| C[3][11] | |
| 11.0[5][6][8] · 11.1[1][3][4] · 11.16±0.27[11] | |
1940 Whipple (prov. designation:1975 CA) is a carbonaceousbackground asteroid from the outer region of theasteroid belt, approximately 35 kilometers (22 miles) in diameter. It was discovered on 2 February 1975, by theHarvard College Observatory at itsGeorge R. Agassiz Station nearHarvard, Massachusetts, in the United States, and named after astronomerFred Whipple.[12]
Whipple orbits the Sun in theouter main-belt at a distance of 2.9–3.3 AU once every 5 years and 4 months (1,956 days). Its orbit has aneccentricity of 0.06 and aninclination of 7° with respect to theecliptic.[1] The first used observation was made atGoethe Link Observatory in 1962, extending the asteroid'sobservation arc by 13 years prior to its discovery observation.[12]
Thisminor planet was named after American astronomerFred Lawrence Whipple (1906–2004), author of the icy conglomerate model, also known as thedirty snowball hypothesis.[2]
Whipple worked at theHarvard College Observatory for over 70 years and was the director of theSmithsonian Astrophysical Observatory where he developed new methods imagingmeteors. He was also president of several commissions at theInternational Astronomical Union and on NASA's panel for missions to small Solar System bodies.[2] The officialnaming citation was published by theMinor Planet Center on 1 June 1975 (M.P.C. 3828).[13]
Whipple has been characterized as a carbonaceousC-type asteroid byPan-STARRS photometric survey.[11]
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, the asteroid measures between 32.6 and 40.4 kilometers in diameter and its surface has a lowalbedo between 0.04 and 0.06.[4][5][6][7][8] TheCollaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link derives an albedo of 0.056 and a diameter of 33.8 kilometers using anabsolute magnitude of 11.1.[3]
In December 2011, a rotationallightcurve was obtained for this asteroid from photometric observations by American astronomer Russel Durkee at the Shed of Science Observatory (H39). It gave a well-definedrotation period of6.953±0.003 hours with a brightness variation of 0.25magnitude (U=3),[10] superseding a period of5.78±0.03 hours previously obtained by French astronomerRené Roy in 2005 (U=2).[9]
