| Discovery[1] | |
|---|---|
| Discovered by | S. J. Bus |
| Discovery site | Siding Spring Obs. |
| Discovery date | 2 March 1981 |
| Designations | |
| (3000) Leonardo | |
Named after | Leonardo da Vinci[2] (Renaissance polymath) |
| 1981 EG19 · 1961 XB 1975 NK1 · 1979 UT4 1979 WC6 | |
| main-belt[1][3] · (inner) background[4] | |
| Orbital characteristics[3] | |
| Epoch 27 April 2019 (JD 2458600.5) | |
| Uncertainty parameter 0 | |
| Observation arc | 56.76yr (20,731 d) |
| Aphelion | 2.7755AU |
| Perihelion | 1.9268 AU |
| 2.3511 AU | |
| Eccentricity | 0.1805 |
| 3.61 yr (1,317 d) | |
| 358.39° | |
| 0° 16m 24.24s / day | |
| Inclination | 2.7514° |
| 200.98° | |
| 173.67° | |
| Physical characteristics | |
| 9.044±1.725 km[5] 9.05±2.22 km[6] 9.777±0.277 km[7] 9.838±0.068 km[8][9] 10.6±1.1 km[10] | |
| 7.524±0.021 h[11] | |
| 0.05[6][12] 0.0585[5] 0.06[10] 0.115[8][9] 0.117[7] | |
| SMASS =B[3][13] | |
| 13.60[10][12] 13.70[1][3][13][14] 13.80[5] | |
3000 Leonardo, provisional designation1981 EG19, is a carbonaceous backgroundasteroid from the inner regions of theasteroid belt, approximately 9.5 kilometers (5.9 miles) in diameter. It was discovered on 2 March 1981, by American astronomerSchelte Bus at theSiding Spring Observatory in Australia.[1] TheB-type asteroid has arotation period of 7.5 hours.[13] It was named for the Italian polymathLeonardo da Vinci.[2]
Leonardo is a non-family asteroid from the main belt'sbackground population.[4] It orbits the Sun in theinner asteroid belt at a distance of 1.9–2.8 AU once every 3 years and 7 months (1,317 days;semi-major axis of 2.35 AU). Its orbit has aneccentricity of 0.18 and aninclination of 3° with respect to theecliptic.[3] The body'sobservation arc begins with aprecovery taken at theGoethe Link Observatory in December 1961, more than 19 years prior to its official discovery observation atSiding Spring.[1]
In 1986, 3000 Leonardo was observed to be at its predicted location.[15] It was one of 450 minor planets whose location was checked in a large observation campaign involving multiple sites and astronomers.[15] 3000 Leonard was visually observed by Roger E. Harvey on August 30, 1986 with a 73 cmNewtonian telescope from eastern North America (Concord, North Carolina in the United States).[15][16]
Thisminor planet after the Italian polymath of the RenaissanceLeonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) fromFlorence. He was a painter, sculptor, architect, musician, engineer and natural philosopher. The officialnaming citation was published by theMinor Planet Center on 29 September 1985 (M.P.C. 10044).[17] He is also honored by both a lunar and a Martian crater (Da Vinci andDa Vinci, respectively).[2] The asteroid is one of several early "kilo-numbered" minor planets that were dedicated to renowned scientists or institutions including:[18]
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),[18] 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.
By 2001, 3000 Leonardo was one of 32 named minor planets named after painters and sculptors, and some other examples in this category include3001 Michelangelo (the next named asteroid numerically),4221 Picasso, and4457 van Gogh.[19] Although these were classically named, the 1980s were a time of new concepts in naming, and it was a popular time to name minor planets after acronyms (such as3568ASCII) and one astronomer promoted more whimsical names including successfully naming one discovery after his pet.[19] However, there was a backlash against naming asteroids after pets, and the IAU does not recommend minor planets be named after pets.[20][21]
At the time of 3000 Leonardo's discovery and naming only a few thousand asteroids had been discovered and named, it would not be until the 1990s and early 2000s when there was a massive spike in asteroid discoveries, with the peak year up to the year 2010, being 2000.[22] In the year 2000, over 40,000 minor planets were recorded, and in the years after many tens of thousands were discovered leading to almost 220,000 numbered minor planets by late 2009.[22]
Leonardo was one of 1341 main-belt asteroids observed between 1993 and 1999 as part ofSmall Main-Belt Asteroid Spectroscopic Survey (SMASSII).[23] In the SMASS taxonomy, it has aspectral type of aB-type asteroid, a "bright" carbonaceous body that is less common than the abundantC-type asteroids.[3]
In October 2015, a rotationallightcurve ofLeonardo was obtained fromphotometric observations by astronomers at theUniversity of Maryland using a 0.43-meter telescope at Mayhill, New Mexico (H10). Lightcurve analysis gave arotation period of7.524±0.021 hours with a brightness variation of 0.26magnitude (U=2).[11] The result supersedes a tentative period determination by astronomers at Lindby Observatory (K60) which gave a spin rate of 8.54 and an amplitude of 0.20 magnitude (U=1).[13][24]
According to the survey carried out by theNEOWISE mission of NASA'sWide-field Infrared Survey Explorer,Leonardo measures between 9.03 and 11 kilometers in diameter and its surface has analbedo between 0.05 and 0.117.[5][6][7][8][9][10][12][14]
TheCollaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link assumes a standard albedo for astony asteroid of 0.20 (rather than for a carbonaceous one) and consequently calculates a shorter diameter of 5.41 kilometers based on anabsolute magnitude of 13.7.[13]
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