1754 Cunningham

Orbit and classification

Cunningham is a dark and reddish asteroid and member of the Hilda family, a large group that orbits in resonance with the gas giant Jupiter and are thought to originate from the Kuiper belt. It orbits the Sun in the outermost main-belt at a distance of 3.3–4.6 AU once every 7 years and 10 months (2,859 days). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.17 and an inclination of 12° with respect to the ecliptic. It was first identified as at Heidelberg Observatory in 1904, extending the body's observation arc by 31 years prior to its official discovery observation at Uccle.

Physical characteristics

Rotation period

In July 2015, a rotational lightcurve of Cunningham was obtained from photometric observation by American amateur astronomer Robert Stephens at the Center for Solar System Studies in California. It gave a well-defined rotation period of 7.7416 hours with a brightness variation of 0.17 magnitude ().

A similar period of 7.7398 hours with an amplitude of 0.16 was previously obtained by French and Italian amateur astronomers Pierre Antonini and Silvano Casulli in July 2008 (). Other lightcurves gave a shorter period of 4.285 and 5.16 hours ().

Diameter and albedo

According to the surveys carried out by the Infrared Astronomical Satellite IRAS and the Japanese Akari satellite, Cunningham measures 79.52 and 83.55 kilometers in diameter, and its surface has an albedo of 0.035 and 0.031, respectively. The Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link agrees with the results found by IRAS, that is an albedo of 0.035 and a diameter of 79.52 kilometers with on an absolute magnitude of 9.77. Cunningham belongs to a small group asteroids with a spectral P-type in the Tholen classification scheme.

Naming

This minor planet was named in honor of American astronomer Leland Cunningham (1904–1989), who began his career as an assistant to astronomer Fred Whipple (also see 1940 Whipple) at Harvard University in the 1930s and worked at the Leuschner Observatory of University of California during the 1940s and 1950s. The official was published by the Minor Planet Center on 20 February 1976 (M.P.C. 3934). Cunningham discovered four minor planets himself and was a prolific computer of cometary orbits and observer of faint comets, including comet Gale, a lost comet he recovered in 1938.

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