| Discovery[1] | |
|---|---|
| Discovered by | E. W. Elst |
| Discovery site | La Silla Obs. |
| Discovery date | 2 March 1989 |
| Designations | |
| (6189) Völk | |
Named after | Elisabeth Völk (ESO staff member)[2] |
| 1989 EY2 · 1980 TY4 5489 T-2 | |
| main-belt[1][3] · (inner) Vesta[4][5][6] | |
| Orbital characteristics[3] | |
| Epoch 31 May 2020 (JD 2459000.5) | |
| Uncertainty parameter 0 | |
| Observation arc | 46.34yr (16,926 d) |
| Aphelion | 2.6157AU |
| Perihelion | 1.9938 AU |
| 2.3048 AU | |
| Eccentricity | 0.1349 |
| 3.50 yr (1,278 d) | |
| 164.96° | |
| 0° 16m 54.12s / day | |
| Inclination | 5.9423° |
| 245.32° | |
| 68.736° | |
| Physical characteristics | |
| 3.982±0.156 km[7] | |
| 2.896±0.001 h[8][a] | |
| 0.443±0.079[7] | |
| S(SDSS-MOC)[9] | |
6189 Völk (prov. designation:1989 EY2) is a stonyVesta asteroid, approximately 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) in diameter, located in the inner regions of theasteroid belt. It was discovered on 2 March 1989, by Belgian astronomerEric Elst at theLa Silla Observatory in northern Chile.[1] TheS-type asteroid has a shortrotation period of 2.9 hours. It was named for Elisabeth Völk, a staff member atESO headquarters in Germany.[2]
When applying the synthetichierarchical clustering method to itsproper orbital elements,Völk is a core member of the stonyVesta family,[4][5][6] one of the largest families in theinner asteroid belt. It orbits the Sun in theinner main-belt at a distance of 2.0–2.6 AU once every 3 years and 6 months (1,278 days;semi-major axis of 2.3 AU). Its orbit has aneccentricity of 0.13 and aninclination of 6° with respect to theecliptic.[3] It was first observed as5489 T-2 atPalomar Observatory during the secondPalomar–Leiden Trojan survey in September 1973, extending the asteroid'sobservation arc by almost 16 years prior to its official discovery atLa Silla.[1]
Thisminor planet was named after Elisabeth Völk (born 1946), administrative staff member atESO's headquarters in Germany, in charge of theESO Schmidtplates archive, who became a good friend of the discoverer. The naming was independently suggested by astronomer and author of theDictionary of Minor Planets,Lutz Schmadel.[2] Thenaming citation was published by theMinor Planet Center on 15 February 1995 (M.P.C. 24766).[10]
In theSDSS-based taxonomy,Völk is a common, stonyS-type asteroid.[9]
In September 2015, a rotationallightcurve was constructed fromphotometric observations byRobert D. Stephens at the Center for Solar System Studies in California (U81). Lightcurve analysis gave a well-definedrotation period of2.896±0.001 hours with a brightness amplitude of0.18±0.02 inmagnitude (U=3).[8][a]
According to the survey carried out by theNEOWISE mission of NASA'sWide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, the asteroid measures (3.982±0.156) kilometers in diameter and its surface has an outstandingly highalbedo of (0.443±0.079),[7] while theCollaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link assumes an albedo of 0.24 – in accordance with the LCDB's divergent classification into theFlora family – and calculates a larger diameter of 5.2 kilometers.[11]
