| Discovery[1] | |
|---|---|
| Discovered by | D. di Cicco |
| Discovery site | Sudbury Obs.(817) |
| Discovery date | 24 October 1995 |
| Designations | |
| (8900) AAVSO | |
Named after | AAVSO (American Association of Variable Star Observers)[2] |
| 1995 UD2 · 1979 UV 1987 SX16 · 1989 EU2 | |
| main-belt · (middle) background | |
| Orbital characteristics[1] | |
| Epoch 4 September 2017 (JD 2458000.5) | |
| Uncertainty parameter 0 | |
| Observation arc | 37.37 yr (13,651 days) |
| Aphelion | 2.9070AU |
| Perihelion | 2.1657 AU |
| 2.5364 AU | |
| Eccentricity | 0.1461 |
| 4.04yr (1,475 days) | |
| 184.05° | |
| 0° 14m 38.4s / day | |
| Inclination | 8.7319° |
| 232.25° | |
| 99.711° | |
| Physical characteristics | |
| Dimensions | 5.28 km(calculated)[3] 5.792±0.320 km[4][5] |
| 3.8368±0.0005h[6] | |
| 0.20(assumed)[3] 0.276±0.038[4][5] | |
| S[3] | |
| 13.4[1] · 13.75[3] · 13.2[4] · 13.303±0.004(R)[6] · 13.84±0.28[7] | |
8900 AAVSO, provisional designation1995 UD2, is a stony backgroundasteroid from the central region of theasteroid belt, approximately 5.5 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered by American amateur astronomerDennis di Cicco at the U.S Sudbury Observatory(817), Massachusetts, on 24 October 1995.[8] The asteroid was named after theAmerican Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO).[2]
AAVSO is a non-family asteroid from the main belt'sbackground population. It orbits the Sun in thecentral main-belt at a distance of 2.2–2.9 AU once every 4.04 years (1,475 days). Its orbit has aneccentricity of 0.15 and aninclination of 9° with respect to theecliptic.[1] The firstprecovery was obtained atKleť Observatory in 1979, extending the asteroid'sobservation arc by 16 years prior to its discovery.[8]
Thisminor planet was named after theAmerican Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO), an astronomical pro-am organization that promotes the study ofvariable stars to both amateur and professional astronomers, maintaining the largest database of variable star observations in the world.[2]
AAVSO was founded in 1911 by amateur astronomerWilliam Tyler Olcott (1873–1936), based on a suggestion byEdward Charles Pickering's (1846–1919), after whom the minor planet784 Pickeringia is named.[2] The official naming citation was published by theMinor Planet Center on 1 May 2003(M.P.C. 48388).[9]
In May 2010, a rotationallightcurve ofAAVSO was obtained at thePalomar Transient Factory in California. Lightcurve analysis gave arotation period of3.8368 hours with a brightness variation of 0.43 inmagnitude (U=2).[6]
According to theNEOWISE mission of NASA's space-basedWide-field Infrared Survey Explorer,AAVSO measures 5.8 kilometers in diameter and its surface has analbedo of 0.28,[4][5] while theCollaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link assumes a standard albedo forstony asteroids of 0.20 and calculates a diameter of 5.3 kilometers.[3]
