2685 Masursky
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| Discovery A (http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/iau/lists/NumberedMPs.html) | |
|---|---|
| Discoverer | Edward L. G. Bowell |
| Discovery date | May 3, 1981 |
| Alternate designations | 1950 VO; 1973 QF; 1975 XJ5; 1977 KU; 1981 JN B (http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/iau/MPDes.html) |
| Category | Main belt (Eunomia family) |
| Orbital elements C (http://asteroid.lowell.edu/) Epoch July 14, 2004 (JD 2453200.5) | |
| Eccentricity (e) | 0.111 |
| Semi-major axis (a) | 384.170 Gm (2.568 AU) |
| Perihelion (q) | 341.603 Gm (2.283 AU) |
| Aphelion (Q) | 426.737 Gm (2.853 AU) |
| Orbital period (P) | 1503.127 d (4.12 a) |
| Mean orbital speed | 18.53 km/s |
| Inclination (i) | 12.132° |
| Longitude of the ascending node (Ω) | 215.437° |
| Argument of perihelion (ω) | 289.057° |
| Mean anomaly (M) | 297.289° |
| Physical characteristics | |
| Dimensions | 15–20 km |
| Mass | 3.5–8.4×1015 kg |
| Density | 2? g/cm³ |
| Surface gravity | 0.0042–0.0056 m/s² |
| Escape velocity | 0.0079–0.0106 km/s |
| Rotation period | ? d |
| Spectral class | S-Type? |
| Absolute magnitude | 12.2 |
| Albedo | 0.10? |
| Mean surface temperature | ~171 K |
The asteroid 2685 Masursky is a main belt asteroid. It was discovered by Edward (Ted) Bowell in 1981. It was named after Harold Masursky (1923–1990), a planetary geologist at the U.S. Geological Survey, Flagstaff, who worked on numerous space missions.
Little was known about Masursky until the Cassini space probe, en route to Jupiter and Saturn, flew past it on 23 January, 2000. Since Cassini passed the asteroid at a distance of 1.6 million kilometres (about four times the Earth-Moon distance), the images it returned showed nothing more than a dot. Nevertheless, Cassini was able to determine Masursky's size (about 15–20 km in diametre).
Masursky's orbit places it within the Eunomia family, and it had been assumed that like the other members of the family, Masursky would be an S-Type. However, Cassini's observations suggest that it may not be an S-Type; its true composition remains uncertain.
| The minor planets |
| Vulcanoids | Main belt | Groups and families | Near-Earth objects | Jupiter Trojans |
| Centaurs | Trans-Neptunians | Damocloids | Comets | Kuiper belt | Oort cloud |
| (For other objects and regions, see: Binary asteroids, Asteroid moons and the Solar system) |
| (For a complete listing, see: List of asteroids. For pronunciation, see: Pronunciation of asteroid names.) |