| Discovery[1] | |
|---|---|
| Discovered by | Indiana University (Indiana Asteroid Program) |
| Discovery site | Goethe Link Obs. |
| Discovery date | 25 July 1950 |
| Designations | |
| (1822) Waterman | |
Named after | Alan T. Waterman (American physicist)[2] |
| 1950 OO · 1943 EB 1953 MA · 1963 TT | |
| main-belt · (inner)[3] | |
| Orbital characteristics[1] | |
| Epoch 4 September 2017 (JD 2458000.5) | |
| Uncertainty parameter 0 | |
| Observation arc | 66.64 yr (24,342 days) |
| Aphelion | 2.5023AU |
| Perihelion | 1.8378 AU |
| 2.1700 AU | |
| Eccentricity | 0.1531 |
| 3.20yr (1,168 days) | |
| 45.052° | |
| Inclination | 0.9567° |
| 221.25° | |
| 30.351° | |
| Physical characteristics | |
| Dimensions | 6.054±0.098[4] 6.515±0.060 km[5] 7.46 km(calculated)[3] |
| 7.581±0.002h[6] | |
| 0.20(assumed)[3] 0.2639±0.0659[5] 0.325±0.046[4] | |
| S[3] | |
| 13.0[5] · 13.1[1][3] · 14.04±0.51[7] | |
1822 Waterman, provisional designation1950 OO, is a stonyasteroid from the inner regions of theasteroid belt, approximately 6.5 kilometers in diameter.
It was discovered on 25 July 1950, by Indiana University'sIndiana Asteroid Program at itsGoethe Link Observatory near Brooklyn, Indiana, United States.[8] The asteroid was named after American physicistAlan T. Waterman.[2]
Waterman is aS-type asteroid. It orbits the Sun in theinner main-belt at a distance of 1.8–2.5 AU once every 3 years and 2 months (1,168 days). Its orbit has aneccentricity of 0.15 and aninclination of 1° with respect to theecliptic.[1] The body'sobservation arc begins with its official discovery observation, as its first identification,1943 EB, made at the GermanSonneberg Observatory in 1943, remained unused.[8]
In January 2013, a rotationallightcurve ofWaterman was obtained from photometric observation taken at the U.S Etscorn Observatory in New Mexico. It gave a well-definedrotation period of 7.581 hours with a brightness variation of 0.51magnitude (U=3).[6]
According to the survey carried out by NASA'sWide-field Infrared Survey Explorer with its subsequentNEOWISE mission,Waterman measures between 6.06 and 6.52 kilometers in diameter, and its surface has analbedo between 0.264 and 0.325.[4][5] TheCollaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link assumes a standard albedo for stony asteroids of 0.20 and calculates a diameter of 7.46 kilometers with anabsolute magnitude of 13.1.[3]
Thisminor planet was named in honor of American physicistAlan Tower Waterman (1892–1967), who was the first director of the U.S.National Science Foundation. He went to Washington to serve with OSRD (1941–45), ONR (1946–51), and NSF (1951–63), after being an academic physicist for 25 years.[2]
Waterman was awarded the Karl Taylor Compton Gold Medal for distinguished statesmanship in science, thePublic Welfare Medal and thePresidential Medal of Freedom.[2][9] The officialnaming citation was published by theMinor Planet Center on 1 June 1975 (M.P.C. 3825).[10]
