2011 Veteraniya

Classification and orbit

Veteraniya is a member of the Vesta family. It orbits the Sun in the inner main-belt at a distance of 2.0–2.7 AU once every 3 years and 8 months (1,347 days). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.15 and an inclination of 6° with respect to the ecliptic. The first precovery was taken at Palomar Observatory in 1950, extending the asteroid's observation arc by 20 years prior to its discovery.

Physical characteristics

The Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link (CALL) and Pan-STARRS large-scale survey classify it as a S-type and V-type asteroid, respectively.

According to the survey carried out by the NEOWISE mission of NASA's space-based Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, the asteroid's surface has an exceptionally high albedo of 0.46 and a corresponding diameter of 5.2 kilometers, while CALL assumes a standard albedo for stony asteroids of 0.20. CALL therefore calculates a larger diameter of 7.8 kilometers, as the lower the albedo (reflectivity), the higher the body's diameter at a constant absolute magnitude (brightness).

A photometric lightcurve analysis by Japanese astronomer Sunao Hasegawa in 2004 has given a rotation period of hours with a brightness amplitude of in magnitude.

Naming

This minor planet was named in honor of the Soviet veterans of the Great Patriotic War. (The term is used in Russia to describe the conflict fought between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany on the Eastern Front of World War II during 1941–1945.) The official was published by the Minor Planet Center on 1 September 1978 (M.P.C. 4481).

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