8116 Jeanperrin

Orbit and classification

Jeanperrin is a member of the Flora family (402), a giant asteroid family and the largest family of stony asteroids in the main-belt.

It orbits the Sun in the inner asteroid belt at a distance of 1.9–2.6 AU once every 3 years and 4 months (1,233 days; semi-major axis of 2.25 AU). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.16 and an inclination of 5° with respect to the ecliptic. The body's observation arc begins with its first observations as at Anderson Mesa Station in November 1987, more than 8 years prior to its official discovery observation at La Silla.

Physical characteristics

Jeanperrin is an assumed S-type asteroid, which agrees with the overall spectral type for member of the Flora family.

Rotation period

In October 2007, a rotational lightcurve of Jeanperrin was obtained from photometric observations by a large international collaboration of astronomers. Lightcurve analysis gave a rotation period of 3.6169 hours and a low brightness variation of 0.09 magnitude, indicative of a nearly spheroidal shape (). Additional observations by Petr Pravec at Ondřejov Observatory in 2007 and 2017, rendered a nearly identical period of 3.6169 and 3.61692 hours with an amplitude of 0.09 and 0.10 magnitude, respectively ().

Diameter and albedo

According to the survey carried out by the NEOWISE mission of NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, Jeanperrin measures between 3.66 and 4.797 kilometers in diameter and its surface has an albedo between 0.1841 and 0.437.

The Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link adopts Petr Pravec's revised WISE data, that is, an albedo of 0.1841 and a (rounded) diameter of 4.80 kilometers based on an absolute magnitude of 14.05.

Satellite

During the photometric observations in October 2007 (see above), it was also revealed, that Jeanperrin is a synchronous binary asteroid with a minor-planet moon in its orbit. The satellite measures approximately 1.49 kilometers in diameter (ds/dp-ratio of at least 0.33), and orbits its primary at an estimated average distance of 13 kilometers once every 36.15 hours (1.506 days).

Naming

This minor planet was named after French physicist Jean Baptiste Perrin (1870–1942), who was awarded the 1926 Nobel Prize in Physics for his studies of Brownian motion (also see list of laureates). The official naming citation was published by the Minor Planet Center on 11 February 1998 (M.P.C. 31299).

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