5476 Mulius,provisional designation:1989 TO₁₁ is a mid-sizedJupiter trojan from theTrojan camp, approximately 35 kilometers (22 miles) in diameter. It was discovered on 2 October 1989, by American astronomerSchelte Bus at theCerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile.^[1] The dark Jovianasteroid has arotation period of 5.8 hours. It wasnumbered in March 1993. In November 2021, it was named after the Trojan warriorMulius, who was killed byAchilles during the Trojan War, according to Greek mythology.^[9]

Mulius is aJupiter trojan which stays in a 1:1orbital resonance with Jupiter. It is located in the traileringTrojan camp at the Gas Giant'sL₅Lagrangian point, 60° behind its orbit(seeTrojans in astronomy).^[4] It is also a non-family asteroid of theJovian background population.^[5]

It orbits the Sun at a distance of 4.7–5.5 AU once every 11 years and 7 months (4,217 days;semi-major axis of 5.11 AU). Its orbit has aneccentricity of 0.07 and aninclination of 14° with respect to theecliptic.^[3] The asteroid was first observed atPalomar Observatory in August 1952. One year later, the body'sobservation arc begins at Palomar in August 1953, or more than 36 years prior to its official discovery observation at Cerro Tololo.^[1]

Thisminor planet wasnumbered by theMinor Planet Center on 8 March 1993 (M.P.C. 21774).^[9] On 29 November 2021, IAU'sWorking Group for Small Bodies Nomenclaturenamed it from Greek mythology after Trojan warriorMulius, who was killed during the Trojan War byAchilles who drove his javelin through one ear and out the other of Mulius' head.^[1][2]

Mulius is an assumedC-type asteroid.^[8] Jovian asteroids are typicallyD-types, with the remainder being mostly carbonaceous C- and primitiveP-type asteroids.

Four nights ofphotometric observations of this asteroid were used to build alightcurve showing arotation period of5.780±0.001 hours with a brightness variation of 0.30magnitude. The well-defined lightcurve was obtained during February 1994 byStefano Mottola and Anders Erikson using theESO 1-metre telescope at theLa Silla Observatory in Chile (U=3).^[7][8]

According to the survey carried out by theNEOWISE mission of NASA'sWide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, the asteroid measures 35.1 kilometers in diameter and its surface has analbedo of 0.099,^[6] while theCollaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link assumes a standard albedo for a carbonaceous asteroid of 0.057 and calculates a larger diameter of 42.2 kilometers.^[8]

• Asteroid Lightcurve Database (LCDB), query form (infoArchived 16 December 2017 at theWayback Machine)
• Discovery Circumstances: Numbered Minor Planets (5001)-(10000) – Minor Planet Center
• Asteroid (5476) 1989 TO11 at the Small Bodies Data Ferret
• 5476 Mulius atAstDyS-2, Asteroids—Dynamic Site
  • Ephemeris · Observation prediction · Orbital info · Proper elements · Observational info
• 5476 Mulius at theJPL Small-Body Database
  • Close approach · Discovery · Ephemeris · Orbit viewer · Orbit parameters · Physical parameters

• Minor planet object articles (numbered)
• Jupiter trojans (Trojan camp)
• Discoveries by Schelte J. Bus
• Named minor planets
• Astronomical objects discovered in 1989

• Use dmy dates from November 2021
• Webarchive template wayback links