Magellan (center) as seen from ground in July 2010
Magellan orbits the Sun in theinner main-belt at a distance of 1.2–2.4 AU once every 2 years and 6 months (897 days). Its orbit has aneccentricity of 0.33 and aninclination of 23° with respect to theecliptic.[1]
The first observation was made at the AustralianSiding Spring Observatory, extending the asteroid'sobservation arc by just one month prior to its official discovery observation at Palomar.[4]
According to observations by theKeck Observatory and to the survey carried out by NASA'sWide-field Infrared Survey Explorer with its subsequentNEOWISE mission,Magellan measures between 2.2 and 2.8 kilometers in diameter and its surface has a highalbedo of 0.31 to 0.33.[5][6][7] TheCollaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link (LCDB) agrees with the Keck observations, adopting an albedo of 0.31 and a diameter of 2.49 kilometers.[19]
Between 2000 and 2015, six rotationallightcurves ofMagellan were obtained from photometric observations by astronomersPetr Pravec andBrian D. Warner, as well as by theMexican Asteroid Photometry Campaign and thePalomar Transient Factory. The highest rated lightcurve by LCDB's standards was obtained by French amateur astronomerDavid Romeuf[20] in July 2015, which gave arotation period of7.48202±0.0001 hours with a brightness variation of 0.45magnitude (U=3).[11] The large variation suggests an elongated shape.
Thisminor planet was named after Portuguese navigator and explorerFerdinand Magellan (Fernão de Magalhães; c. 1480–1521), who led and died on the firstcircumnavigation of the Earth during 1519–1522. The minor planet is also named after the modernMagellan spacecraft, which was launched by NASA in 1989 and went on to map the surface ofVenus. The Portuguese navigator is also honored by the cratersMagelhaens on Mars andMagelhaens on the Moon.[3] The official naming citation was published by theMinor Planet Center on 2 December 1990 (M.P.C. 17466).[21]
