| Discovery[1] | |
|---|---|
| Discovered by | M. F. Wolf |
| Discovery site | Heidelberg Obs. |
| Discovery date | 25 September 1929 |
| Designations | |
| (1134) Kepler | |
Named after | Johannes Kepler (astronomer)[2] |
| 1929 SA · 1951 SA | |
| Mars-crosser[1][3] | |
| Orbital characteristics[1] | |
| Epoch 16 February 2017 (JD 2457800.5) | |
| Uncertainty parameter 0 | |
| Observation arc | 86.62 yr (31,638 days) |
| Aphelion | 3.9338AU |
| Perihelion | 1.4219 AU |
| 2.6779 AU | |
| Eccentricity | 0.4690 |
| 4.38yr (1,601 days) | |
| 320.25° | |
| 0° 13m 29.64s / day | |
| Inclination | 15.312° |
| 5.7988° | |
| 332.89° | |
| Earth MOID | 0.4329 AU |
| Physical characteristics | |
| Dimensions | 4±1 km(generic)[4] |
| 0.1148 day[5] | |
| SMASS =S[1] | |
| 14.2[1] | |
1134 Kepler, provisional designation1929 SA, is a stonyasteroid and eccentricMars-crosser from theasteroid belt, approximately 4 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 25 September 1929, by German astronomerMax Wolf atHeidelberg Observatory in southwest Germany.[3] It is named afterJohannes Kepler.[2]
Kepler orbits the Sun at a distance of 1.4–3.9 AU once every 4 years and 5 months (1,601 days). Its orbit has aneccentricity of 0.47 and aninclination of 15° with respect to theecliptic.[1] The body'sobservation arc begins at Heidelberg, the night after its official discovery observation.[3]
In theSMASS taxonomy,Kepler is a stonyS-type asteroid.[1]
Its diameter has not been estimated by any of the prominent space-based surveys such as the Infrared Astronomical SatelliteIRAS (1982), the JapaneseAkari satellite (2006), NASA'sWide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (2009) or its subsequentNEOWISE mission (2013).[1] Based on a genericmagnitude-to-diameter conversion,Kepler's diameter is between 3 and 8 kilometer for anabsolute magnitude of 14.2 and an assumedalbedo in the range of 0.25 to 0.05.[4] Since itsspectral type falls into the class of stony asteroids, which have an averaged standard albedo around 0.20,Kepler's generic diameter is close to 4 kilometers, as the higher a body's albedo (reflectivity), the shorter its diameter at a fixed absolute magnitude (brightness).[4]
Kepler'srotation period is 0.1148 day,[5] a pretty common value for asteroids of this size.[6][7]
Thisminor planet was named on the commemoration of the 300th death anniversary of astronomerJohannes Kepler (1571–1630), best known for hislaws of planetary motion. Kepler is also honored by alunar andMartian crater, byKepler Dorsum – a mountain ridge on the Martian moon Phobos, and byKepler's Supernova.[2]
Naming citation was first published in 1930, in the astronomy journalAstronomical Notes (AN 240, 135).[2] The space observatoryKepler and its manydiscovered exoplanets also bear his name(see alsoKepler (disambiguation)).
