| Discovery[1] | |
|---|---|
| Discovered by | C. J. van Houten I. van Houten-G. T. Gehrels |
| Discovery site | Palomar Obs. |
| Discovery date | 24 September 1960 |
| Designations | |
| (2054) Gawain | |
Named after | Gawain(Arthurian legend)[2] |
| 4097 P-L · 1973 FG1 | |
| main-belt · (outer)[3] | |
| Orbital characteristics[1] | |
| Epoch 4 September 2017 (JD 2458000.5) | |
| Uncertainty parameter 0 | |
| Observation arc | 62.52 yr (22,834 days) |
| Aphelion | 3.2591AU |
| Perihelion | 2.6716 AU |
| 2.9653 AU | |
| Eccentricity | 0.0991 |
| 5.11yr (1,865 days) | |
| 315.28° | |
| 0° 11m 34.8s / day | |
| Inclination | 3.7886° |
| 293.24° | |
| 183.97° | |
| Physical characteristics | |
| Dimensions | 17.28±4.94 km[4] 18.042±0.245 km[5][6] 19.95 km(derived)[3] 20.05±2.1 km[7] 20.77±0.63 km[8] |
| 11.1098±0.0004h[9] 11.5±0.1 h[10] 11.581±0.0194 h[11] | |
| 0.0444(derived)[3] 0.06±0.04[4] 0.068±0.005[8] 0.0697±0.017[7] 0.073±0.008[5][6] | |
| C[3] | |
| 12.00[5][8] · 12.5[1][3][4] · 12.507±0.010(R)[11] · 12.53±0.34(R)[10] | |
2054 Gawain, provisional designation4097 P-L, is a dark and elongatedasteroid from the outer regions of theasteroid belt, approximately 19 kilometers in diameter. Discovered during thePalomar–Leiden survey atPalomar Observatory in 1960, the asteroid was later named afterGawain, a knight of King Arthur'sRound Table in the Arthurian legend.[2]
Gawain was discovered on 24 September 1960, by Dutch astronomer coupleIngrid andCornelis van Houten, as well as Dutch–American astronomerTom Gehrels from images taken at thePalomar Observatory near San Diego, California, in the United States.[12]
Thesurvey designation "P-L" stands forPalomar–Leiden, named after Palomar Observatory andLeiden Observatory, which collaborated on the fruitfulPalomar–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 with the discovery ofseveral thousand asteroids.[13]
Gawain orbits the Sun in theouter main-belt at a distance of 2.7–3.3 AU once every 5 years and 1 month (1,865 days). Its orbit has aneccentricity of 0.10 and aninclination of 4° with respect to theecliptic.[1]
The asteroid'sobservation arc begins 6 years prior to its official discovery observation, with aprecovery taken at the discovering Palomar Observatory in July 1954.[12]
Gawain is an assumed carbonaceousC-type asteroid.[3]
In October 2001, a first rotationallightcurve ofGawain was obtained from photometric observations by an international collaboration of astronomers. Lightcurve analysis gave arotation period of 11.1098 hours with a high brightness variation of 0.69magnitude (U=2).[9] Additional lightcurves with a period of 11.581 and 11.5 hours and an amplitude of 0.65 and 1.05, respectively, were obtained by astronomers at thePalomar Transient Factory in California in 2011 and 2013 (U=2).[10][11] A high brightness amplitude typically indicates that the body has a non-spheroidal shape.
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,Gawain measures between 17.28 and 20.77 kilometers in diameter and its surface has analbedo between 0.06 and 0.073.[4][5][6][7][8] TheCollaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link agrees with the results obtained by IRAS, and derives an albedo of 0.0444 and a diameter of 19.95 kilometers based on anabsolute magnitude of 12.5.[3]
Thisminor planet was named after the figureGawain, King Arthur's nephew and a Knight of the Round Table in the Arthurian legend.[2] The approved naming citation was published by theMinor Planet Center on 13 October 1981 (M.P.C. 6421).[14]
