| Discovery[1] | |
|---|---|
| Discovered by | J. Schubart |
| Discovery site | Sonneberg Obs. |
| Discovery date | 29 July 1960 |
| Designations | |
| (2000) Herschel | |
| Pronunciation | /ˈhɜːrʃəl/[2] |
Named after | William Herschel[3] (German-British astronomer) |
| 1960 OA · 1934 NX | |
| main-belt[1][4] · (inner)[5] Phocaea[6] | |
| Orbital characteristics[4] | |
| Epoch 27 April 2019 (JD 2458600.5) | |
| Uncertainty parameter 0 | |
| Observation arc | 84.08yr (30,712 d) |
| Aphelion | 3.0885AU |
| Perihelion | 1.6708 AU |
| 2.3796 AU | |
| Eccentricity | 0.2979 |
| 3.67 yr (1,341 d) | |
| 293.69° | |
| 0° 16m 6.6s / day | |
| Inclination | 22.819° |
| 291.92° | |
| 130.51° | |
| Physical characteristics | |
| 14.768±0.348 km[7][8] 16.15±3.11 km[9] 16.86±1.17 km[10] 17.385±0.173 km[11] | |
| 130±2 h[5][12] | |
| 0.1870[11] 0.197[10] 0.24[9] 0.256[7][8] | |
| Tholen =S[4][5] B–V = 0.893[4] U–B = 0.494[4] | |
| 11.25[1][4][5][7][10][11] 11.42[9] | |
2000 Herschel, provisional designation1960 OA, is a stony Phocaeaasteroid and a tumblingslow rotator from the inner regions of theasteroid belt, approximately 16 kilometers (10 miles) in diameter. It was discovered 29 July 1960, by German astronomerJoachim Schubart atSonneberg Observatory in eastern Germany.[1] TheS-type asteroid has a longrotation period of 130 hours.[5] It was named after astronomerWilliam Herschel.[3]
Herschel is a member of thePhocaea family (701),[6] a largefamily of stony asteroids with nearly two thousand known members.[13]: 23 It orbits the Sun in theinner main-belt at a distance of 1.7–3.1 AU once every 3 years and 8 months (1,341 days;semi-major axis of 2.38 AU). Its orbit has aneccentricity of 0.30 and aninclination of 23° with respect to theecliptic.[4] It was first identified as1934 NX atJohannesburg Observatory in 1934, extending the body'sobservation arc by 26 years prior to its official discovery observation at Sonneberg.[1]
The relatively highorbital eccentricity of this object causes it to come close to the orbit of the planetMars. This means there is a chance it will eventually collide with the planet, with the odds of a collision estimated at 18% per billion orbits.[14]
Thisminor planet was named in honour of the English astronomer of German originWilliam Herschel (1738–1822), who discovered what he calledGeorgium Sidus (akaUranus). The officialnaming citation was published by theMinor Planet Center on 15 October 1977 (M.P.C. 4237).[15] While the minor planet with number "1000",1000 Piazzia, honors the discoverer of the first minor planet,Giuseppe Piazzi, number "2000" does so for Herschel, discoverer of the first telescopic major planet.[3] The asteroid is one of several early "kilo-numbered" minor planets that were dedicated to renowned scientists or institutions including:[16]
The sequence continues with the asteroids5000 IAU (for theInternational Astronomical Union),6000 United Nations (for theUnited Nations),7000 Curie (for the pioneers on radioactivity,Marie andPierre Curie), and8000 Isaac Newton (forIsaac Newton),[16] while9000 Hal (afterHAL 9000 from2001: A Space Odyssey) and10000 Myriostos (after the Greek word for ten-thousandth, which is meant to honor all astronomers) were named based on their direct numeric accordance.
In theTholen classification,Herschel is a commonS-type asteroid.[4]
Analysis of thelightcurve for this object appears to show that it istumbling, with rotation occurring about the non-principal axis. Lightcurve analysis gave arotation period of130±3 hours with a high brightness variation of1.16±0.05magnitude (U=2).[12] This makes it aslow rotator.[5]
TheCollaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link assumes a standard albedo for a stony asteroid of 0.20 and calculates a diameter of 16.71 kilometers based on anabsolute magnitude of 11.25.[5] According to the surveys carried out by the JapaneseAkari satellite and theNEOWISE mission of NASA'sWide-field Infrared Survey Explorer,Herschel measures between 14.768 and 17.385 kilometers in diameter and its surface has analbedo between 0.1870 and 0.256.[7][8][9][10][11]
