1209 Pumma

Orbit and classification

Pumma is a member of the Hygiea family (601), a very large family of carbonaceous outer-belt asteroids, named after the fourth-largest asteroid, 10 Hygiea. It orbits the Sun in the outer main-belt at a distance of 2.8–3.6 AU once every 5 years and 8 months (2,063 days). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.13 and an inclination of 7° with respect to the ecliptic. No precoveries were taken, and no prior identifications were made. The body's observation arc begins at Uccle, 8 days after its official discovery observation at Heidelberg.

Physical characteristics

Lightcurve

In April 2012, a rotational lightcurve of Pumma was obtained from photometric observations by Italian and French amateur astronomers Silvano Casulli and René Roy. Lightcurve analysis gave a well-defined rotation period of 8.5001 hours with a brightness variation of 0.28 magnitude ().

Diameter and albedo

According to the survey carried out by NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer with its subsequent NEOWISE mission, Pumma measures between 21.73 and 26.99 kilometers in diameter, and its surface has an albedo between 0.139 and 0.215. The Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link assumes a standard albedo for carbonaceous C-type asteroids of 0.057 and consequently calculates a much larger diameter of 40.33 kilometers using an absolute magnitude of 10.7.

Naming

This minor planet's name was proposed by German astronomer Albrecht Kahrstedt (1897–1971), a staff member at ARI and later director at Babelsberg Observatory (also see 1587 Kahrstedt). "Pumma" is the nickname of a niece of Kahrstedt. The official naming citation was published by Paul Herget in The Names of the Minor Planets in 1955 (H 112).

References