5088 Tancredi

Orbit and classification

Tancredi is a dark C-type asteroid and member of the Themis family, a dynamical family of outer-belt asteroids with nearly coplanar ecliptical orbits. It orbits the Sun in the outer main-belt at a distance of 2.6–3.6 AU once every 5 years and 6 months (1,998 days). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.16 and an inclination of 1° with respect to the ecliptic. As no precoveries were taken, the asteroid's observation arc begins with its discovery observation in 1979.

Lightcurve

In February 2009, a rotational lightcurve of Tancredi was obtained from photometric observations by Gonzalo Tancredi at the Los Molinos Observatory near Montevideo, Uruguay. It gave a rotation period of hours with a brightness amplitude of 0.31 magnitude ().

Diameter and albedo

According to the survey carried out by the NEOWISE mission of NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, Tancredi measures 15.9 kilometers in diameter and its surface has an albedo of 0.07, while the Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link assumes an albedo of 0.08 and calculates a diameter of 12.8 kilometers using an absolute magnitude of 12.81.

Naming

This minor planet was named after Gonzalo Tancredi (born 1963), the Uruguayan astronomer who also obtained the body's first rotational lightcurve. In 1993, he did his PhD at Uppsala Observatory, Sweden, and is now a professor of astronomy at Uruguay University and an active member of the IAU.

Tancredi was also a director of the Los Molinos Observatory (2004–2012). Using both observations and theoretical modeling, he works on the dynamical and physical evolution of comets and their interactions with minor planets in the Solar System. The approved naming citation was published by the Minor Planet Center on 1 September 1993 (M.P.C. 22506).

References