| Discovery[1] | |
|---|---|
| Discovered by | K. Reinmuth |
| Discovery site | Heidelberg Obs. |
| Discovery date | 3 March 1921 |
| Designations | |
| (948) Jucunda | |
Named after | Name picked from the almanac Lahrer Hinkender Bote[2] |
| A921 EL · 1921 JE | |
| main-belt[1][3] · (outer) background[4][5] | |
| Orbital characteristics[3] | |
| Epoch 31 May 2020 (JD 2459000.5) | |
| Uncertainty parameter 0 | |
| Observation arc | 98.85yr (36,104 d) |
| Aphelion | 3.5276AU |
| Perihelion | 2.5362 AU |
| 3.0319 AU | |
| Eccentricity | 0.1635 |
| 5.28 yr (1,928 d) | |
| 277.84° | |
| 0° 11m 12.12s / day | |
| Inclination | 8.6536° |
| 357.10° | |
| 163.29° | |
| Physical characteristics | |
| 26.24±0.01 h[8][9] | |
| C(assumed)[8] | |
| 11.5[1][3] | |
948 Jucunda (provisional designation:A921 ELor1921 JE) is abackground asteroid, approximately 17 kilometers (11 miles) in diameter, located in the outer region of theasteroid belt. It was discovered on 3 March 1921, by astronomerKarl Reinmuth at theHeidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory in southwest Germany.[1] The asteroid has a longer-than averagerotation period of 26.2 hours. It was named after a common German female name, unrelated to the discoverer's contemporaries, that was taken from the almanacLahrer Hinkender Bote.[2]
Jucunda is a non-family asteroid of the main belt'sbackground population when applying thehierarchical clustering method to itsproper orbital elements.[4][5] It orbits the Sun in theouter asteroid belt at a distance of 2.5–3.5 AU once every 5 years and 3 months (1,928 days;semi-major axis of 3.03 AU). Its orbit has aneccentricity of 0.16 and aninclination of 9° with respect to theecliptic.[3] The body'sobservation arc begins at Heidelberg/Vienna Observatory on 10 March 1921, one week after its official discovery observation.[1]
Thisminor planet was named "Jucunda", after a female name picked from theLahrer Hinkender Bote, published inLahr, southern Germany. AHinkender Bote (lit. "limping messenger") was a very popularalmanac, especially in thealemannic-speaking region from the late 17th throughout the early 20th century. Thecalendar section containsfeast days, the dates of important fairs andastronomical ephemerides. The calendar contains a Germanname day analogue for the respective catholic and protestant feast-days(entry not found).[10] The name derives fromiucundus, Latin for "pleasant" or "agreeable".
As with913 Otila,994 Otthild,997 Priska and1144 Oda, Reinmuth selected names from this calendar due to his many asteroid discoveries that he had trouble thinking of proper names. These names are not related to the discoverer's contemporaries.Lutz Schmadel, the author of theDictionary of Minor Planet Names learned about Reinmuth's source of inspiration from private communications with Dutch astronomerIngrid van Houten-Groeneveld, who worked as a young astronomer at Heidelberg.[2]
Jucunda is an assumed carbonaceousC-type asteroid.[8] However, most publishedalbedos are between 0.13 and 0.19, too high to agree with a carbonaceousspectral type(see below).
In April 2011, a rotationallightcurve ofJucunda was obtained fromphotometric observations byRobert Stephens at the Santana Observatory (646) and Goat Mountain Astronomical Research Station (G79) in California. Lightcurve analysis gave arotation period of26.24±0.01 hours with a brightness amplitude of0.30±0.03magnitude (U=3).[9] Observations in March 2011, byLuca Strabla,Ulisse Quadri and Roberto Girelli atBassano Bresciano Observatory (565) gave a period of28.639±0.012 hours with an amplitude of0.35±0.05 magnitude (U=2+).[11] Additional period determinations of 27.6 h (1.150 d) and 27.9 h (1.16220 d) were made by Eric Barbotin andRaoul Behrend in November 2019, and byPierre Antonini in March 2011 (U=n.a.).[12]
According to the survey carried out by theNEOWISE mission of NASA'sWide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) and the JapaneseAkari satellite,Jucunda measures17.331±0.194 and17.77±1.08 kilometers in diameter and its surface has analbedo of0.196±0.037 and0.170±0.022, respectively.[6][7] TheCollaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link assumes a standard albedo for acarbonaceous asteroid of 0.057 and calculates a diameter of 27.90 kilometers based on anabsolute magnitude of 11.5.[8] Additional measurements were published by the WISE team (all of them have larger diameters with lower albedos). They are:18.116±0.134 km (2011),19.38±0.23 km (2012) and20.00±5.78 km (2016) with the corresponding albedos of0.1635±0.0282,0.130±0.015 and0.09±0.07, respectively.[5][8]
