3790 Raywilson

Orbit and classification

Raywilson is a Themistian asteroid that belongs to the Themis family (602), a very large family of carbonaceous asteroids, named after its parent body, 24 Themis. For no good reason, it has also been considered a member of the Eos family.

It orbits the Sun in the outer asteroid belt at a distance of 2.6–3.7 AU once every 5 years and 8 months (2,056 days; semi-major axis of 3.16 AU). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.17 and an inclination of 0° with respect to the ecliptic. The body's observation arc begins at Heidelberg, the night after its official discovery observation.

Physical characteristics

Pan-STARRS photometric survey has characterized it as a common, carbonaceous C-type asteroid, which is also the overall spectral type of the Themis family.

Rotation period

In October 2010, a rotational lightcurve of Raywilson was obtained in the R-band from photometric observations by astronomers at the Palomar Transient Factory in California. Lightcurve analysis gave a rotation period of 4.654 hours with a brightness variation of 0.30 magnitude (). A previous measurement by Brazilian astronomers gave a period of 4.86 hours and an amplitude of 0.31 magnitude ().

Diameter and albedo

According to the survey carried out by the NEOWISE mission of NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, Raywilson measures between 10.35 and 14.028 kilometers in diameter and its surface has an albedo between 0.052 and 0.137, while the Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link assumes an albedo of 0.08 and calculates a diameter of 12.94 kilometers based on an absolute magnitude of 12.8.

Naming

This minor planet was named after English physicist Raymond Wilson (1928–2018), who was an astronomical optician and pioneer of active optics at ESO's La Silla Observatory in the 1970s. The official naming citation was proposed by Lutz Schmadel, endorsed by the Heidelberg Observatory, and published by the Minor Planet Center on 1 September 1993 (M.P.C. 22499).

References