| Discovery[1] | |
|---|---|
| Discovered by | E. Bowell |
| Discovery site | Anderson Mesa Stn. |
| Discovery date | 8 January 1984 |
| Designations | |
| (3277) Aaronson | |
Named after | Marc Aaronson (astronomer)[2] |
| 1984 AF1 · 1962 CF 1971 UV2 · 1982 TU2 | |
| main-belt · (outer)[3] | |
| Orbital characteristics[1] | |
| Epoch 4 September 2017 (JD 2458000.5) | |
| Uncertainty parameter 0 | |
| Observation arc | 55.24 yr (20,178 days) |
| Aphelion | 3.9927AU |
| Perihelion | 2.2900 AU |
| 3.1414 AU | |
| Eccentricity | 0.2710 |
| 5.57yr (2,034 days) | |
| 93.558° | |
| 0° 10m 37.2s / day | |
| Inclination | 8.5693° |
| 84.997° | |
| 295.32° | |
| Physical characteristics | |
| Dimensions | 19.88±0.15 km[4] 20.049±0.054 km[5] 26.64 km(calculated)[3] |
| 9.80±0.05h[6] | |
| 0.057(assumed)[3] 0.112±0.016[4] 0.1211±0.0122[5] | |
| C[3] | |
| 11.4[5] · 11.5[4] · 11.6[1][3] · 11.89±0.21[7] | |
3277 Aaronson, provisional designation1984 AF1, is a carbonaceousasteroid from the outer region of theasteroid belt, approximately 20 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered by American astronomerEdward Bowell at Lowell'sAnderson Mesa Station, near Flagstaff, Arizona, on 8 January 1984, and named in memory of astronomerMarc Aaronson.[8]
TheC-type asteroid orbits the Sun in theouter main-belt at a distance of 2.3–4.0 AU once every 5 years and 7 months (2,034 days). Its orbit has aneccentricity of 0.27 and aninclination of 9° with respect to theecliptic.[1] A firstprecovery was obtained atGoethe Link Observatory in 1962, extending the asteroid'sobservation arc by 22 years prior to its official discovery observation at Anderson Mesa.[8]
In November 2010, a rotationallightcurve for this asteroid was obtained from photometric observations made at the U.S. Shadowbox Observatory in Carmel, Indiana. It rendered arotation period of9.80±0.05 hours with a brightness amplitude of 0.14 inmagnitude (U=2+).[6]
Based on NASA's space-basedWISE and its subsequentNEOWISE mission, the asteroid has analbedo of 0.11 and 0.12, and a diameter of 19.9 and 20.0 kilometers, respectively,[4][5] while theCollaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link (CALL) assumes a lower albedo of 0.06, which translates into a larger diameter of 26.6 kilometers, as the lower the albedo (reflectivity), the higher the body's diameter, for a given absolute magnitude (brightness).[3]
Thisminor planet was named in memory of American astronomerMarc Aaronson (1950–1987), killed in the dome of the 4-meterNicholas U. Mayall Telescope of theKitt Peak National Observatory. His fields of research included the detection the decelerative effect of the Virgo cluster on theHubble flow, observations of carbon stars in the globular clusters in the Magellanic clouds, and measurement of the large velocity dispersion indwarf spheroidal galaxies, suggesting that all galaxies do havedark matter halos.[2] The official naming citation was published by theMinor Planet Center on 11 July 1987(M.P.C. 12016).[9]
