| Discovery[1] | |
|---|---|
| Discovered by | M. B. Protić |
| Discovery site | Belgrade Obs. |
| Discovery date | 10 January 1939 |
| Designations | |
| (2348) Michkovitch | |
Named after | Vojislav Mišković (Serbian astronomer)[2] |
| 1939 AA · 1958 GR 1965 DA · 1975 XA5 1978 QH1 | |
| main-belt · Erigone[3] | |
| Orbital characteristics[1] | |
| Epoch 4 September 2017 (JD 2458000.5) | |
| Uncertainty parameter 0 | |
| Observation arc | 78.28 yr (28,590 days) |
| Aphelion | 2.8089AU |
| Perihelion | 1.9862 AU |
| 2.3975 AU | |
| Eccentricity | 0.1716 |
| 3.71yr (1,356 days) | |
| 60.159° | |
| 0° 15m 55.8s / day | |
| Inclination | 4.6718° |
| 186.37° | |
| 295.73° | |
| Physical characteristics | |
| Dimensions | 4.595±0.098[4] 4.802±0.078 km[5] 15.33 km(calculated)[3] |
| 28h[a] | |
| 0.057(assumed)[3] 0.8441±0.1248[5] 0.917±0.151[4] | |
| C[3] | |
| 12.4[5] · 12.8[1][3] · 13.07±0.31[6] | |
2348 Michkovitch, provisional designation1939 AA, is a presumed carbonaceous Erigoneasteroid from the inner regions of theasteroid belt, approximately 15 kilometers (9.3 miles) in diameter. It was discovered by Serbian astronomerMilorad Protić atBelgrade Observatory on 10 January 1939.[7] The asteroid was named after Serbian astronomerVojislav Mišković.[2]
Michkovitch is a member of theErigone family, named after163 Erigone, its largest member and namesake.[3] It is a rather young cluster (170–280 My) of darkcarbonaceous asteroids in the inner asteroid belt, which otherwise consists mostly ofstony asteroids.[8]
It orbits the Sun in theinner main-belt at a distance of 2.0–2.8 AU once every 3 years and 9 months (1,356 days). Its orbit has aneccentricity of 0.17 and aninclination of 5° with respect to theecliptic.[1] Noprecoveries were taken. The asteroid'sobservation arc starts 15 days after its official discovery with the first used observation taken at theRoyal Observatory of Belgium.[7]
Thisminor planet was named by the discoverer after his professor Vojislav Mišković (1892–1976), first director of the new Belgrade Observatory and founder of the Astronomical Institute atSANU.[2] The official naming citation was published by theMinor Planet Center on 7 March 1985 (M.P.C. 9477).[9]
A 2011-published rotationallightcurve ofMichkovitch was obtained from photometric observations by Australian amateur astronomer David Higgins. Lightcurve analysis gave a longer-than averagerotation period of 28 hours with a brightness variation of 0.12 inmagnitude (U=2).[a]
According to the survey carried out by theNEOWISE mission of NASA'sWide-field Infrared Survey Explorer,Michkovitch measures 4.6 and 4.8 kilometers in diameter and its surface has an outstandingalbedo of 0.84 and 0.92, respectively.[4][5]
TheCollaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link strongly disagrees with the result obtained by the space-based observatory and assumes a standard albedo for carbonaceous asteroids of 0.057 and calculates a much larger diameter of 15.4 kilometers, as the lower the body's albedo (reflectivity), the larger its diameter at a constant absolute magnitude (brightness).[3]
