 Orbits ofSandage (blue), theinner planets (red) andJupiter (outermost) | |
| Discovery[1] | |
|---|---|
| Discovered by | E. F. Helin |
| Discovery site | Palomar Obs. |
| Discovery date | 9 January 1992 |
| Designations | |
| (9963) Sandage | |
Named after | Allan Sandage (American astronomer)[2] |
| 1992 AN · 1976 NH 1989 CK6 | |
| main-belt · Phocaea[3][4] | |
| Orbital characteristics[1] | |
| Epoch 4 September 2017 (JD 2458000.5) | |
| Uncertainty parameter 0 | |
| Observation arc | 28.13 yr (10,276 days) |
| Aphelion | 2.9982AU |
| Perihelion | 1.6833 AU |
| 2.3408 AU | |
| Eccentricity | 0.2809 |
| 3.58yr (1,308 days) | |
| 132.58° | |
| 0° 16m 30.72s / day | |
| Inclination | 23.461° |
| 116.97° | |
| 241.14° | |
| Physical characteristics | |
| Dimensions | 5.45 km(calculated)[3] 6.371±0.174 km[5][6] |
| 4.6502±0.0008h[7] 4.65053±0.00013 h[8] | |
| 0.158±0.025[5][6] 0.23(assumed)[3] | |
| S[3] | |
| 12.9[1] · 12.95±0.25[9] · 13.080±0.002(R)[7] · 13.53[3] · 13.6[5] | |
9963 Sandage, provisional designation1992 AN, is a stony Phocaeaasteroid from the inner regions of theasteroid belt, approximately 6 kilometers in diameter.
It was discovered by American astronomerEleanor Helin at thePalomar Observatory in California on 9 January 1992, and later named after American astronomerAllan Sandage.[2][10]
Sandage is astony member of thePhocaea family (701),[4] a group of asteroids with similar orbital characteristics. It orbits the Sun in theinner main-belt at a distance of 1.7–3.0 AU once every 3 years and 7 months (1,308 days). Its orbit has aneccentricity of 0.28 and aninclination of 23° with respect to theecliptic.[1] First identified as1976 NH atCrimea–Nauchnij in 1976, the body'sobservation arc begins at the GermanKarl Schwarzschild Observatory in 1989, or 3 years prior to its official discovery observation at Palomar.[10]
Two rotationallightcurves ofSandage were obtained from photometric observations at thePalomar Transient Factory and atTexas Tech's Preston Gott Observatory in November 2011 and June 2016, respectively. Lightcurve analysis gave arotation period of 4.65 hours with a high brightness variation of 0.56 and 0.43 inmagnitude, respectively (U=2/3-).[7][8]
According to the survey carried out by theNEOWISE mission of NASA'sWide-field Infrared Survey Explorer,Sandage measures 6.4 kilometers in diameter and its surface has analbedo of 0.16,[5] while theCollaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link assumes an albedo of 0.23 – derived from the family's largest member and namesake,25 Phocaea – and calculates a diameter of 5.5 kilometers with anabsolute magnitude of 13.53.[3]
Thisminor planet was named after American astronomerAllan Sandage (1926–2010), a worldwide known expert onstellar astronomy andobservational cosmology, who worked at Palomar andMount Wilson Observatory.[2] Sandage determined the first reasonably accurate values for theHubble constant and also discovered the firstquasar. The official naming citation was published by theMinor Planet Center on 2 September 2001 (M.P.C. 43381).[11]
