3793 Leonteus

Orbit and classification

Leonteus is a dark Jovian asteroid orbiting in the leading Greek camp at Jupiter's Lagrangian point, 60° ahead of its orbit in a 1:1 resonance (see Trojans in astronomy). It is also a non-family asteroid in the Jovian background population.

It orbits the Sun at a distance of 4.8–5.7 AU once every 11 years and 11 months (4,350 days; semi-major axis of 5.22 AU). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.09 and an inclination of 21° with respect to the ecliptic. The asteroid was first observed as ** at the McDonald Observatory in November 1951. The body's observation arc begins with its observation as ** at Goethe Link Observatory in October 1961, or 24 years prior to its official discovery observation at Palomar.

Physical characteristics

In both the Tholen- and SMASS-like taxonomy of the Small Solar System Objects Spectroscopic Survey (S3OS2), Leonteus is a D-type asteroid. It is also a D-type in the SDSS-based taxonomy, while the Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link (CALL) assumes it to be of carbonaceous composition.

Rotation period

Since 1994, several rotational lightcurves have been obtained from photometric observations by Stefano Mottola and Anders Erikson using the Dutch 0.9-metre and Bochum 0.61-metre telescopes at La Silla Observatory in Chile, as well as by American photometrist Robert Stephens at the Center for Solar System Studies in California.

Analysis of Mottola's best-rated lightcurve from June 1994 gave a rotation period of hours with a brightness variation of magnitude ().

Diameter and albedo

According to the surveys carried out by the Infrared Astronomical Satellite IRAS, the Japanese Akari satellite and the NEOWISE mission of NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, Leonteus measures between 86.26 and 112.05 kilometers in diameter and its surface has an albedo between 0.042 and 0.072.

CALL derives an albedo of 0.0784 and a diameter of 86.38 kilometers based on an absolute magnitude of 8.7.

Naming

This minor planet was named from Greek mythology after Leonteus, a hero of the Trojan War, who attempted to win a competition among the Greek warriors to see who could throw an iron meteorite the farthest. However, he lost the game to his associate, Polypoites, after whom the minor planet 3709 Polypoites is named. The official naming citation was published by the Minor Planet Center on 27 August 1988 (M.P.C. 13482).

Notes

References