8441 Lapponica

Orbit and classification

Lapponica is a non-family asteroid of the main belt's background population when applying the hierarchical clustering method to its proper orbital elements. Based on osculating Keplerian orbital elements, the asteroid has also been classified as a member of the Flora family (402), a giant asteroid family and the largest family of stony asteroids in the main-belt.

The asteroid orbits the Sun in the inner main-belt at a distance of 1.9–2.5 AU once every 3 years and 3 months (1,184 days; semi-major axis of 2.19 AU). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.14 and an inclination of 5° with respect to the ecliptic. The body's observation arc begins with its first observation as at Goethe Link Observatory in March 1953, more than 24 years prior to its official discovery observation.

Palomar–Leiden Trojan survey

The survey designation "T-3" stands for the third Palomar–Leiden Trojan survey, named after the fruitful collaboration of the Palomar and Leiden Observatory in the 1960s and 1970s. 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 asteroid discoveries.

Physical characteristics

Lapponica has been characterized as an L-type asteroid in the SDSS-based taxonomy and by Pan-STARRS survey. It is also an assumed S-type asteroid.

Rotation period

In 2008, two rotational lightcurves of Lapponica were obtained from photometric observations by French amateur astronomer Pierre Antonini and by Maurice Clark at the Montgomery College Observatory in Maryland. Analysis of the best-rated lightcurve gave a rotation period of 3.27 hours with a consolidated brightness amplitude between 0.29 and 0.50 magnitude ().

Diameter and albedo

The Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link assumes an albedo of 0.24 – derived from 8 Flora, the parent body of the Flora family – and calculates a diameter of 4.50 kilometers based on an absolute magnitude of 13.9.

Naming

This minor planet was named for the bar-tailed godwit (Limosa lapponica) a migratory bird of the family Scolopacidae. The official naming citation was published by the Minor Planet Center on 2 February 1999 (M.P.C. 33791) and revised on 2 April 1999 (M.P.C. 34089).

References