| Discovery[1] | |
|---|---|
| Discovered by | C. Kowal |
| Discovery site | Palomar Obs. |
| Discovery date | 13 September 1980 |
| Designations | |
| (2629) Rudra | |
Named after | Rudra[1] (Hindu mythology) |
| 1980 RB1 · 1959 EH | |
| Mars-crosser[1][2][3] | |
| Orbital characteristics[2][4] | |
| Epoch 23 March 2018 (JD 2458200.5) | |
| Uncertainty parameter 0 | |
| Observation arc | 64.05yr (23,396 d) |
| Aphelion | 2.1390AU |
| Perihelion | 1.3417 AU |
| 1.7404 AU | |
| Eccentricity | 0.2290 |
| 2.30 yr (839 d) | |
| 186.56° | |
| 0° 25m 45.48s / day | |
| Inclination | 23.440° |
| 343.46° | |
| 280.67° | |
| Physical characteristics | |
| 5.25±0.53 km[5] 6.69±0.49 km[6] | |
| 123.171±0.4738 h[7] | |
| 0.064[5][6] | |
| SMASS =B[2][8] | |
| 14.50[6] 15.00[2][9][10][11][5] | |
2629 Rudra, provisional designation1980 RB1, is a sizableMars-crossing asteroid andslow rotator inside theasteroid belt, approximately 5.3 kilometers (3.3 miles) in diameter. It was discovered on 13 September 1980, by American astronomerCharles Kowal at thePalomar Observatory in California.[1] The darkB-type asteroid has a longrotation period 123 hours and likely an elongated shape.[3] It was named afterRudra fromHindu mythology.[1]
Rudra is aMars-crossing asteroid, a dynamically unstable group between themain belt and thenear-Earth populations, crossing the orbit ofMars at 1.66 AU. It orbits the Sun at a distance of 1.3–2.1 AU once every 2 years and 4 months (839 days;semi-major axis of 1.74 AU). Its orbit has aneccentricity of 0.23 and aninclination of 23° with respect to theecliptic.[2] The body'sobservation arc begins with its first observation in January 1954, more than 26 years prior to its official discovery observation. Theprecovery was taken atPalomar Observatory and published by theDigitized Sky Survey.[1] On 15 April 2023 and on 23 July 2179, the asteroid will pass about 0.08 AU (12,000,000 km; 7,400,000 mi) from Mars.[2]
Thisminor planet was named afterRudra fromHindu mythology. Rudra is the destroyer aspect ofShiva, and both destroyer and regenerator of all things in the Universe.[1] The asteroid's name was suggested byFrederick Pilcher and published by theMinor Planet Center on 1 June 1996 (M.P.C. 27329).[12]
In theSMASS classification,Rudra is an uncommon, carbonaceousB-type asteroid.[2]
In September 2010, a rotationallightcurve ofRudra was obtained fromphotometric observations by astronomers at thePalomar Transient Factory in California. Lightcurve analysis gave arotation period of123.171±0.4738 hours with a brightness variation of 0.58magnitude (U=2).[7] Observations by theWide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) found a higher brightness amplitude of 0.87 and 0.95, respectively, which indicates that the body has a non-spherical, elongated shape.[3]
According to the surveys carried out by theNEOWISE mission of NASA's WISE telescope and the JapaneseAkari satellite,Rudra measures between 4.73 and 6.69 kilometers in diameter and its surface has analbedo between 0.064 and 0.07,[6][9][10][11][13][14] with a recently published diameter of5.25±0.53 kilometers and an albedo of 0.064.[5][a][b]
TheCollaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link assumes a standard albedo for a stony asteroid of 0.20 and consequently calculates a smaller diameter of 2.19 kilometers based on anabsolute magnitude of 15.67.[3]
