| Discovery[1] | |
|---|---|
| Discovered by | F. Börngen |
| Discovery site | Karl Schwarzschild Obs. |
| Discovery date | 8 March 1964 |
| Designations | |
| (3181) Ahnert | |
Named after | Paul Ahnert(astronomer)[2] |
| 1964 EC · 1932 RK 1936 XJ · 1951 GC1 1964 DE · 1975 NH1 1975 RD · 1979 SC12 1979 UO4 · 1979 WD8 1979 WU1 · 1982 RE1 | |
| main-belt · Flora[3] | |
| Orbital characteristics[1] | |
| Epoch 4 September 2017 (JD 2458000.5) | |
| Uncertainty parameter 0 | |
| Observation arc | 86.12 yr (31,454 days) |
| Aphelion | 2.3743AU |
| Perihelion | 2.0840 AU |
| 2.2292 AU | |
| Eccentricity | 0.0651 |
| 3.33yr (1,216 days) | |
| 9.5372° | |
| 0° 17m 45.96s / day | |
| Inclination | 3.9579° |
| 221.14° | |
| 304.92° | |
| Physical characteristics | |
| Dimensions | 7.961±0.097[4] 8.19 km(calculated)[3] 8.511±0.031 km[5] 8.57±0.24 km[6] |
| 0.1856±0.0266[5] 0.216±0.019[4] 0.24(assumed)[3] 0.264±0.029[6] | |
| SMASS =S[1] · S[3][7] | |
| 12.40[6] · 12.6[1][3] · 12.8[5] · 12.98±0.06[7] | |
3181 Ahnert, provisional designation1964 EC, is a stony Floraasteroid from the inner regions of theasteroid belt, about 8 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered by German astronomerFreimut Börngen at theKarl Schwarzschild Observatory in Tautenburg, eastern Germany, on 8 March 1964.[8]
TheS-type asteroid is a member of theFlora family, one of the largest groups of stony asteroids in the main-belt. It orbits the Sun in theinner main-belt at a distance of 2.1–2.4 AU once every 3 years and 4 months (1,216 days). Its orbit has aneccentricity of 0.07 and aninclination of 4° with respect to theecliptic.[1] The firstprecovery was obtained atLowell Observatory in 1931, extending the asteroid'sobservation arc by 33 years prior to its discovery.[8]
According to the surveys carried out by NASA's space-basedWide-field Infrared Survey Explorer with its subsequentNEOWISE mission, the asteroid measures between 8.0 and 8.6 kilometers and its surface has analbedo between 0.19 and 0.26.[4][6][5] The Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link assumes an intermediate albedo of 0.24 – derived from8 Flora, the largest member and namesake of this orbital family – and calculates a diameter of 8.2 kilometers.[3] As of 2016, the asteroid'srotation period and shape still remain unknown.
Thisminor planet was named after German astronomerPaul Ahnert (1897–1989), author of theannual calendar of astronomical events (German:Kalender für Sternfreunde) and a renowned astronomer among professionals and amateurs. His fields of research included the physics of the Solar System and periods ofvariable stars at theSonneberg Observatory. (The minor planet1039 Sonneberga is named after this observatory.) Publisher of several books on performing astronomical observations, he also popularized the subject of astronomy to the general public.[2] The official naming citation was published by theMinor Planet Center on 2 July 1985 (M.P.C. 9771).[9]
