12621 Alsufi

Main-belt asteroid October 2019 yes 12621 Alsufi #D6D6D6 24 September 1960 C. J. van HoutenI. van Houten-G.Tom Gehrels Palomar Obs. (12621) Alsufi 6585 P-L1997 JJ 12 Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi(astronomer) main-beltThemis 4 September 2017 (JD 2458000.5) 0 56.33 yr (20,576 days) 3.5148 AU 2.6980 AU 3.1064 AU 0.1315 5.48 yr (2,000 days) 142.13° 0.1800 ms / day 2.4308° 148.06° 204.34° 6.76 km (calculated) 4.7194 0.0024 h 0.08 (assumed) LC 13.913.91 0.2613.761 0.014 (R)14.21 12621 Alsufi, provisionally designated 6585 P-L, is a carbonaceous Themistian asteroid from the outer region of the asteroid belt, approximately 7 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered by astronomers during the Palomar–Leiden survey in 1960, and named for medieval Persian astronomer Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi. Discovery Alsufi was discovered on 24 September 1960, by Dutch astronomer couple Ingrid and Cornelis van Houten at Leiden, on photographic plates taken by Dutch–American astronomer Tom Gehrels at the U.S. Palomar Observatory, California. No precoveries were taken prior to its discovery observation. Palomar–Leiden survey The survey designation "P-L" stands for Palomar–Leiden, named after Palomar Observatory and Leiden Observatory, which collaborated on the fruitful Palomar–Leiden survey in the 1960s. Gehrels used Palomar's Samuel Oschin telescope (also known as the 48-inch Schmidt Telescope), and shipped the photographic plates to Ingrid and Cornelis van Houten at Leiden Observatory where astrometry was carried out. The trio are credited with the discovery of several thousand minor planets. Classification and orbit It is a member of the Themis family, a dynamical group of outer-belt asteroids with nearly coplanar ecliptical orbits. The C-type asteroid is also classified as a rather rare L-type asteroid by Pan-STARRS large-scale survey. It orbits the Sun in the outer main-belt at a distance of 2.7–3.5 AU once every 5 years and 6 months (2,000 days). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.13 and an inclination of 2° with respect to the ecliptic. Physical characteristics A rotational lightcurve of this asteroid was obtained from photometric observations made at the U.S. Palomar Transient Factory, California, in January 2012. It gave a rotation period of 4.7194 0.0024 hours with a brightness amplitude of 0.71 in magnitude (U=2). The Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link assumes an albedo of 0.08 and calculates a diameter of 6.8 kilometers with an absolute magnitude of 14.21. Naming This minor planet is named in honor of 10th-century Persian astronomer Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi (A.D. 903–986), also known by his western name, Azophi. Working in Isfahan, he produced his influential star atlas around A.D. 963. The atlas is based on both, Ptolemy's Almagest and on pre-Islamic star lore, and contains the earliest description of the Andromeda Galaxy. The approved naming citation was published by the Minor Planet Center on 22 January 2008 (M.P.C. 61764). The lunar crater Azophi is also named in his honour. References 30em 2017-01-24 last obs. JPL Small-Body Database Browser: 12621 Alsufi (6585 P-L) https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=2012621 Jet Propulsion Laboratory 5 July 2017 Dictionary of Minor Planet Names – (12621) Alsufi Schmadel Lutz D. Springer Berlin Heidelberg 823 2003 https://books.google.com/books?id=aeAg1X7afOoC&pg=PA823 978-3-540-29925-7 13 May 2016 12621 Alsufi (6585 P-L) Minor Planet Center https://www.minorplanetcenter.net/db_search/show_object?object_id=12621 13 May 2016 MPC/MPO/MPS Archive Minor Planet Center https://www.minorplanetcenter.net/iau/ECS/MPCArchive/MPCArchive_TBL.html 13 May 2016 Minor Planet Discoverers Minor Planet Center https://www.minorplanetcenter.net/iau/lists/MPDiscsNum.html 28 December 2015 13 May 2016 12621 13 May 2016 6 Adam Waszczak Chan-Kao Chang Eran O. Ofek Russ Laher Frank Masci David Levitan Jason Surace Yu-Chi Cheng Wing-Huen Ip Daisuke Kinoshita George Helou Thomas A. Prince Shrinivas Kulkarni September 2015 Asteroid Light Curves from the Palomar Transient Factory Survey: Rotation Periods and Phase Functions from Sparse Photometry http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/bib_query?bibcode=2015AJ....150...75W The Astronomical Journal 150 3 35 2015AJ....150...75W 10.1088/0004-6256/150/3/75 1504.04041 8342929 13 May 2016 6 Peter Veres Robert Jedicke Alan Fitzsimmons Larry Denneau Mikael Granvik Bryce Bolin Serge Chastel Richard J. Wainscoat William S. Burgett Kenneth C. Chambers Heather Flewelling Nick Kaiser Eugen A. Magnier Jeff S. Morgan Paul A. Price John L. Tonry Christopher Waters November 2015 Absolute magnitudes and slope parameters for 250,000 asteroids observed by Pan-STARRS PS1 - Preliminary results http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/bib_query?bibcode=2015Icar..261...34V Icarus 261 34–47 2015Icar..261...34V 10.1016/j.icarus.2015.08.007 1506.00762 53493339 13 May 2016 External links Asteroid Lightcurve Database (LCDB), query form (info https://web.archive.org/web/20171216050541/http://www.minorplanet.info/lightcurvedatabase.html 16 December 2017 ) Dictionary of Minor Planet Names, Google books Asteroids and comets rotation curves, CdR https://web.archive.org/web/20160729213840/http://obswww.unige.ch/~behrend/page_cou.html 29 July 2016 – Observatoire de Genève, Raoul Behrend Discovery Circumstances: Numbered Minor Planets (10001)-(15000) – Minor Planet Center 12621 12620 Simaqian 12621 12622 Doppelmayr 012621 6585 Category:Discoveries by Cornelis Johannes van Houten Category:Discoveries by Ingrid van Houten-Groeneveld Category:Discoveries by Tom Gehrels Category:Named minor planets 19600924