1509 Esclangona (provisional designation1938 YG) is a rare-type Hungariaasteroid andbinary system from the inner regions of theasteroid belt, approximately 8 kilometers in diameter. It is named after French astronomerErnest Esclangon.
Esclangona is a member of theHungaria family, which form the innermost concentration of asteroids in theSolar System. It orbits the Sun in theinner main-belt at a distance of 1.8–1.9 AU once every 2 years and 7 months (931 days). Its orbit has aneccentricity of 0.03 and aninclination of 22° with respect to theecliptic.[1]
Esclangona has a smallmoon, provisionally designatedS/2003 (1509) 1, which measures 4 kilometers in diameter, and orbits 140 kilometers from its parent. This wide separation relative to the pair's size is rather unusual and it is believed that both Esclangona and its moon areejecta from an asteroidal collision in the past that left the scene as a co-orbiting pair; a similar pairing is3749 Balam and its outer moon.[6]
In December 2004,photometric measurements of Esclangona made by American astronomerBrian Warner at his Palmer Divide Observatory, California, showed alightcurve with arotation period of3.247±0.002 hours and a brightness variation of0.17±0.02 inmagnitude.[13][a]
According to the surveys carried out by the Infrared Astronomical SatelliteIRAS, the JapaneseAkari satellite, and NASA'sWide-field Infrared Survey Explorer with its subsequentNEOWISE mission, Esclangona measures between 6.83 and 9.87 kilometers in diameter and its surface has analbedo between 0.107 and 0.41.[7][8][9][11] TheCollaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link derives an albedo of 0.2041 and a diameter of 8.18 kilometers with anabsolute magnitude of 12.858.[4]
^abcdUsui, Fumihiko; Kuroda, Daisuke; Müller, Thomas G.; Hasegawa, Sunao; Ishiguro, Masateru; Ootsubo, Takafumi; et al. (October 2011). "Asteroid Catalog Using Akari: AKARI/IRC Mid-Infrared Asteroid Survey".Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan.63 (5):1117–1138.Bibcode:2011PASJ...63.1117U.doi:10.1093/pasj/63.5.1117. (online,AcuA catalog p. 153)