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66391 Moshup
Binary near-Earth asteroid From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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66391 Moshup /ˈmɒʃʌp/, provisional designation 1999 KW4, is a binary asteroid, classified as a near-Earth object and potentially hazardous asteroid of the Aten group, approximately 1.3 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 20 May 1999, by Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research (LINEAR) at the Lincoln Laboratory's Experimental Test Site in Socorro, New Mexico, United States.[3] It is a Mercury-crosser that comes extremely close to the Sun at a perihelion of 0.2 AU.
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Orbit
The asteroid orbits the Sun at a distance of 0.2–1.1 AU once every 6.18 months (188 days). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.69 and an inclination of 39° with respect to the ecliptic.[2] A first precovery was taken by 2MASS at the Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory in 1998, extending the body's observation arc by one year prior to its official discovery observation at Socorro.[3]
As a potentially hazardous asteroid, it has an Earth minimum orbital intersection distance of 0.0138 AU (2,060,000 km), or 5.4 lunar distances.[2] On 25 May 2036, it will pass 0.0155 AU (2,320,000 km) from Earth.[8]
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Numbering and naming
This minor planet was numbered by the Minor Planet Center on 10 September 2003. It was named from Mohegan legend, after Moshup, a giant who lived in the coastal areas of New England. The asteroid's companion is named Squannit, after the wife of Moshup and a medicine woman of the Makiawisug (little people). The official naming citation was published by the Minor Planet Center on 27 August 2019 (M.P.C. 115894).[9]
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Physical characteristics
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In the SMASS classification, the asteroid a characterized as a stony S-type asteroid.[2]
Satellite
Moshup has a minor-planet moon orbiting it. The moon, named Squannit /ˈskwɒnɪt/ and designated S/2001 (66391) 1, is approximately 360 metres in diameter, and orbits its primary every 16 hours at a mean distance of 2.6 kilometers. The presence of a companion was suggested by photometric observations made by Pravec and Šarounová and was confirmed by radar observations from Arecibo, announced on 23 May 2001 (also see below).[5][10] Based on radar imaging, Squannit's dimensions are estimated to be 595 × 450 × 343 meters.[4]
Diameter and shape
According to radiometric observations from Arecibo Observatory, the asteroid has an effective mean diameter of 1.317 kilometers.[4] The observations were taken from May 21–23, 2001, by Lance A. M. Benner, Steven J. Ostro, Jon D. Giorgini, Raymond F. Jurgens, Jean-Luc Margot and Michael C. Nolan.[4]
The Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link adopts a diameter of 1.3 kilometers and derives an albedo 0.26 with an absolute magnitude of 16.5.[6]
The shapes of the two bodies and their dynamics are complex.[11] With a dimension of approximately 1.42 × 1.36 × 1.18 kilometers for a simple triaxial ellipsoid, the asteroid has an oblate shape, which is dominated by an equatorial ridge at the body's potential-energy minimum. This bizarre property of the equatorial region means that it is close to breakup: raising a particle a meter above the surface would put it into orbit. As seen in the image above, the gravitational effects between the moon and the asteroid create a gigantic mountain extending in the equatorial plane around the entire asteroid. It was the first asteroid to be described as "muffin-shaped",[12] which is now understood to be a very common shape for asteroids in critical rotation,[13] including 101955 Bennu and 162173 Ryugu.
Lightcurves
During 19–27 June 2000, a rotational lightcurve of this asteroid was obtained from photometric observations by Petr Pravec and Lenka Šarounová at Ondřejov Observatory. Lightcurve analysis gave a rotation period of 2.7650 hours with a brightness variation of 0.12 magnitude (U=3).[5]
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See also
References
External links
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