2937 Gibbs

Orbit and classification

Gibbs is a Mars-crossing asteroid, as it crosses the orbit of Mars at 1.666 AU. It is also an eccentric member of the Phocaea family, a large asteroid family of stony asteroids in the inner main-belt. Gibbs orbits the Sun at a distance of 1.6–3.0 AU once every 3 years and 6 months (1,290 days). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.30 and an inclination of 22° with respect to the ecliptic.

The asteroid's observation arc begins with its official discovery observation at Anderson Mesa. No prior identifications were made and no precoveries taken.

Physical characteristics

Gibbs is an assumed stony S-type asteroid, which agrees with the overall spectral type of the Phocaea family.

Rotation period

In 2005, two rotational lightcurves of Gibbs were obtained from photometric observations by Italian amateur astronomers Federico Manzini and Roberto Crippa. Lightcurve analysis gave a rotation period of 3.06 and 3.06153 hours with a brightness variation of 0.31 and 0.39 magnitude, respectively (). In December 2016, Robert Stephens obtained a well-defined lightcurve at his Trojan Station (U81) that gave a period of 3.189 hours and an amplitude of 0.26 magnitude ().

Diameter and albedo

According to the survey carried out by the NEOWISE mission of NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, Gibbs measures between 5.04 and 5.99 kilometers in diameter and its surface has an albedo between 0.283 and 0.30, while the Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link assumes an albedo of 0.23 – derived from 25 Phocaea, the Phocaea family's largest member and namesake – and calculates a diameter of 6.35 kilometers based on an absolute magnitude of 13.2.

Naming

This minor planet was named in memory of American mathematician and physicist Josiah Willard Gibbs (1839–1903), who contributed to the studies of asteroids through his work on orbits. The official naming citation was published by the Minor Planet Center on 17 February 1984 (M.P.C. 8544). The lunar crater Gibbs was also named in his honor.

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