1232 Cortusa

Orbit and classification

Cortusa is a non-family asteroid from the main belt's background population. 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 (2,073 days; semi-major axis of 3.18 AU). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.13 and an inclination of 10° with respect to the ecliptic. The body's observation arc begins with its first observation as at Johannesburg Observatory in July 1930, or 15 months prior to its official discovery observation at Heidelberg.

Naming

This minor planet was named after the flowering plant Cortusa, a species of plant in the primrose family. The official was mentioned in The Names of the Minor Planets by Paul Herget in 1955 (H 114). It honors German astronomer and diligent orbit computer Gustav Stracke (1887–1943), who had asked that no asteroid be named after him. The initials of the asteroids through , all discovered by Karl Reinmuth, spell out "G. Stracke". In this manner, Reinmuth was able to circumvent Stracke's desire and honor him nevertheless. The asteroid 1019 Strackea was later named after Stracke directly. In the 1990s, astronomer Brian Marsden was also honored by this method, see asteroids to . The consecutive initial letters of these minor-planet names spell out "MarsdenB".

Reinmuth's flowers

Due to his many discoveries, Karl Reinmuth submitted a large list of 66 newly named asteroids in the early 1930s. The list covered his discoveries with numbers between and . This list also contained a sequence of 28 asteroids, starting with 1054 Forsytia, that were all named after plants, in particular flowering plants (also see list of minor planets named after animals and plants).

Physical characteristics

In the SDSS-based taxonomy, Cortusa is an X-type asteroid.

Rotation period

In August 2004, a rotational lightcurve of Cortusa was obtained from photometric observations by French amateur astronomer Pierre Antonini. Lightcurve analysis gave a rotation period of hours with a brightness amplitude of 0.10 magnitude (). Other period determinations were made by René Roy (

Diameter and albedo

According to the surveys carried out by the Infrared Astronomical Satellite IRAS, the Japanese Akari satellite and the NEOWISE mission of NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, Cortusa measures between 33.13 and 43.27 kilometers in diameter and its surface has an albedo between 0.07 and 0.14. The Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link derives an albedo of 0.1226 and a diameter of 33.05 kilometers based on an absolute magnitude of 10.3.

References

References

1. Charles Harley Cleaveland (1871) ''Pronouncing Medical Lexicon'', p. 71