1849 Kresák

Orbit and classification

Kresák is a member of the Eos family (606), the largest asteroid family in the outer main belt consisting of nearly 10,000 asteroids. It orbits the Sun in the outer main-belt at a distance of 3.0–3.1 AU once every 5 years and 4 months (1,950 days). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.02 and an inclination of 11° with respect to the ecliptic. The body's observation arc begins 6 days after its official discovery observation.

Naming

This minor planet was named in honor of Slovak astronomer Ľubor Kresák (1927–1994) from the Slovak Academy of Sciences in Bratislava and president of IAU's Commission 20 in the 1970s.

Kresák is known for his theoretical work on meteors and the question of their relationship with comets and minor planets, as well as for the rediscovery of the short-period comet 41P/Tuttle–Giacobini–Kresák at the Skalnaté Pleso Observatory in 1951. The official was published by the Minor Planet Center on 20 February 1976 (M.P.C. 3935).

Physical characteristics

Kresák has been characterized as a carbonaceous C-type asteroid.

Rotation period

In January 2012, a rotational lightcurve of Kresák was obtained from photometric observations at the Palomar Transient Factory in California. In the R-band, it gave a rotation period of 19.10 hours with a brightness variation of 0.19 magnitude ().

Diameter and albedo

According to the survey carried out by NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer with its subsequent NEOWISE mission, Kresák measures 21.7 kilometers in diameter, and its surface has an albedo of 0.114, while the Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link assumes a standard albedo for carbonaceous asteroids of 0.057 and calculates a diameter of 26.1 kilometers with an absolute magnitude of 11.64.

References