From Surf Wiki (app.surf) — the open knowledge base

78816 Caripito

Main-belt asteroid

Summary

Main-belt asteroid

Field	Value
minorplanet	yes
name	78816 Caripito
background	#D6D6D6
discovery_ref
discovered	4 August 2003
discoverer	J. Dellinger
discovery_site	Needville Obs.
mpc_name	(78816) Caripito
alt_names
named_after	Caripito
(Venezuelan town)
mp_category	main-belt(outer)
background
orbit_ref
epoch	27 April 2019 (JD 2458600.5)
uncertainty	0
observation_arc	63.49 yr (23,190 d)
aphelion	3.8470 AU
perihelion	2.4559 AU
semimajor	3.1514 AU
eccentricity	0.2207
period	5.59 yr (2,043 d)
mean_anomaly	268.80°
mean_motion	/ day
inclination	5.6313°
asc_node	277.97°
arg_peri	86.530°
mean_diameter
albedo
abs_magnitude	15.5

(Venezuelan town) background

78816 Caripito (provisional designation ****) is a background asteroid from the outer region of the asteroid belt, approximately 5 km in diameter. The asteroid was discovered on 4 August 2003, by American amateur astronomer and professor of geophysics, Joseph Dellinger at the Needville Observatory in Texas, United States. It was named for the town of Caripito in Venezuela.

Orbit and classification

Caripito is a non-family asteroid from the main belt's background population. It orbits the Sun in the outer asteroid belt at a distance of 2.5–3.8 AU once every 5 years and 7 months (2,043 days; semi-major axis of 3.15 AU). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.22 and an inclination of 6° with respect to the ecliptic. The first precovery, published by the Digitized Sky Survey, was taken at Palomar Observatory in September 1953, extending the asteroid's observation arc by 50 years prior to its official discovery observation.

Naming

This minor planet is named for the Venezuelan town of Caripito in the northeastern Monagas State. It was the place where the parents of the discoverer, Thomas Baynes Dellinger (born 1926) and María de la Garza Cantú (born 1928), met in 1949. At the time, the town was a base camp for the country's rich Quiriquire oil field. The approved naming citation was published by the Minor Planet Center on 18 September 2005 (M.P.C. 54829).

Physical characteristics

Caripito's spectral type is unknown. It is likely of a carbonaceous rather than of a silicaceous composition due to its low albedo.

Diameter and albedo

According to the survey carried out by NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer with its subsequent NEOWISE mission, Caripito measures 5.3 kilometers in diameter and its surface has an albedo of 0.052. It has an absolute magnitude of 15.4. As of 2018, no rotational lightcurve of Caripito has been obtained from photometric observations. The body's rotation period, pole and shape remain unknown.

References

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

background-asteroids discoveries-by-joseph-a.-dellinger named-minor-planets astronomical-objects-discovered-in-2003

Want to explore this topic further?

Ask Mako anything about 78816 Caripito — get instant answers, deeper analysis, and related topics.

Research with Mako

Free with your Surf account

Content sourced from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

This content may have been generated or modified by AI. CloudSurf Software LLC is not responsible for the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of AI-generated content. Always verify important information from primary sources.

Report