| Discovery[1] | |
|---|---|
| Discovered by | Y. Väisälä |
| Discovery site | Turku Obs. |
| Discovery date | 24 February 1938 |
| Designations | |
| (2678) Aavasaksa | |
Named after | Aavasaksa (hill in Finnish Lapland)[2] |
| 1938 DF1 · 1952 KM 1955 DH · 1977 SX1 1979 FP2 · A916 WA | |
| main-belt · Flora[3] | |
| Orbital characteristics[1] | |
| Epoch 4 September 2017 (JD 2458000.5) | |
| Uncertainty parameter 0 | |
| Observation arc | 79.20 yr (28,927 days) |
| Aphelion | 2.4553AU |
| Perihelion | 2.0636 AU |
| 2.2594 AU | |
| Eccentricity | 0.0867 |
| 3.40yr (1,240 days) | |
| 204.08° | |
| 0° 17m 24.72s / day | |
| Inclination | 3.4446° |
| 54.033° | |
| 45.844° | |
| Physical characteristics | |
| Dimensions | 8.19 km(calculated)[3] 8.371±0.096 km[4][5] |
| 24h[6] | |
| 0.24(assumed)[3] 0.276±0.037[4][5] | |
| S[3] | |
| 12.4[4] · 12.6[1][3] | |
2678 Aavasaksa, provisional designation1938 DF1, is a stony Floraasteroid from the inner regions of theasteroid belt, approximately 8 kilometers in diameter.
The asteroid was discovered on 24 February 1938, by Finnish astronomerYrjö Väisälä atTurku Observatory in Southwest Finland.[7] It was named for theAavasaksa hill in Finland.[2]
TheS-type asteroid is a member of theFlora family, one of the largest groups of stony asteroids in the main-belt. It orbits the Sun in theinner main-belt at a distance of 2.1–2.5 AU once every 3 years and 5 months (1,240 days). Its orbit has aneccentricity of 0.09 and aninclination of 3° with respect to theecliptic.[1]
Aavasaksa was first identified asA916 WA atBergedorf Observatory in 1916. Itsobservation arc begins atMount Wilson Observatory in 1935, or 3 years prior to its official discovery observation at Turku.[7]
In January 2009, a provisional and fragmentary photometriclightcurve ofAavasaksa was obtained at the Via Capote Observatory in California. Lightcurve analysis gave it a longer than averagerotation period of 24 hours with a brightness amplitude of 0.4 inmagnitude (U=1).[6]
According to the survey carried out by theNEOWISE mission of NASA's space-basedWide-field Infrared Survey Explorer,Aavasaksa measures 8.4 kilometers in diameter and its surface has analbedo of 0.28,[4] while theCollaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link assumes an albedo of 0.24, derived from8 Flora, the Flora family's largest member and namesake, and calculates a diameter of 8.2 kilometers.[3]
Thisminor planet is named afterAavasaksa, a sharp-edged hill in Finnish Lapland, just south of the Arctic Circle. The hill is located in theTornio River Valley, after which the minor planet1471 Tornio is named, and is often considered the southernmost point in Finland, where the natural phenomenon of themidnight sun is visible each June.[2] The official naming citation was published by theMinor Planet Center on 26 May 1983(M.P.C. 7947).[8]
