| Discovery[1] | |
|---|---|
| Discovered by | Purple Mountain Obs. |
| Discovery site | Purple Mountain Obs. |
| Discovery date | 9 October 1964 |
| Designations | |
| (2012) Guo Shou-Jing | |
Named after | Guo Shoujing (Chinese astronomer)[2] |
| 1964 TE2 · 1971 SF1 1974 MS | |
| main-belt · Flora[3] · Interloper | |
| Orbital characteristics[1] | |
| Epoch 4 September 2017 (JD 2458000.5) | |
| Uncertainty parameter 0 | |
| Observation arc | 63.80 yr (23,303 days) |
| Aphelion | 2.7436AU |
| Perihelion | 1.9137 AU |
| 2.3286 AU | |
| Eccentricity | 0.1782 |
| 3.55yr (1,298 days) | |
| 6.7252° | |
| 0° 16m 38.64s / day | |
| Inclination | 2.9066° |
| 277.11° | |
| 36.696° | |
| Physical characteristics | |
| Dimensions | 5.67 km(calculated)[3] 11.65±0.26 km[4] 11.931±0.080 km[5] 12.248±0.035 km[6] 12.82±3.11 km[7] 14.46±4.71 km[8] 14.70±4.42 km[9] |
| 12h[10] | |
| 0.030±0.006[6] 0.035±0.041[8] 0.04±0.04[9] 0.04±0.03[7] 0.0486±0.0016[5] 0.070±0.004[4] 0.24(assumed)[3] | |
| C[11] · S[3] | |
| 13.20[4][5] · 13.30[9] · 13.4[1][3] · 13.46[8] · 13.51±0.22[11] · 13.56[7] | |
2012 Guo Shou-Jing, provisional designation1964 TE2, is a carbonaceousasteroid and Florianinterloper from the inner regions of theasteroid belt, approximately 13 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 9 October 1964, by astronomers at thePurple Mountain Observatory in Nanking, China.[12] The asteroid was named after Chinese astronomerGuo Shoujing.[2]
Guo Shou-Jing orbits the Sun at a distance of 1.9–2.7 AU once every 3 years and 7 months (1,298 days). Its orbit has aneccentricity of 0.18 and aninclination of 3° with respect to theecliptic.[1] The body'sobservation arc begins 11 years prior to its official discovery observation, with aprecovery taken atPalomar Observatory in August 1953.[12]
Guo Shou-Jing is a dark,carbonaceous asteroid but possesses theorbital characteristics of a member of theFlora family, which is one of the largest groups of bright, stonyS-type asteroids in the main-belt. It is therefore thought to be an unrelated interloper that does not origin from the Flora family's parent body.
Guo Shou-Jing has been characterized as a carbonaceousC-type asteroid byPan-STARRS photometric survey.[11]
In August 2010, a fragmentary rotationallightcurve ofGuo Shou-Jing was obtained from photometric observations by French amateur astronomerRené Roy . Lightcurve analysis gave arotation period of 12 hours with a brightness variation of 0.05magnitude (U=1+).[10]
According to the surveys carried out by the JapaneseAkari satellite, and theNEOWISE mission of NASA'sWide-field Infrared Survey Explorer,Guo Shou-Jing measures between 11.65 and 14.70 kilometers in diameter and its surface has a lowalbedo between 0.030 and 0.070.[4][5][6][7][8][9]
Based on purely orbital criteria, theCollaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link (erroneously) assumes an albedo of 0.24 – derived from8 Flora, the largest member and namesake of the Flora family – and subsequently calculates a smaller diameter of 5.67 kilometers.[3]
Thisminor planet was named after Chinese astronomer and engineerGuo Shoujing (1231–1316) who lived during theYuan Dynasty.[2] He designed and constructed several astronomical instruments for precise observations and has been called the "Tycho Brahe of China". The officialnaming citation was published by theMinor Planet Center on 1 August 1978 (M.P.C. 4420).[13]
