4068_Menestheus

4068 Menestheus

4068 Menestheus

Add article description

4068 Menestheus /mɪˈnɛsθiːəs/ is a dark Jupiter trojan from the Greek camp, approximately 67 kilometers (42 miles) in diameter. It was discovered on 19 September 1973, by Dutch astronomers Ingrid and Cornelis van Houten at Leiden, on photographic plates taken by Tom Gehrels at the Palomar Observatory in California, United States.[1] The D-type asteroid belongs to the 60 largest Jupiter trojans and has a rotation period of 14.4 hours.[4] It was named after the Athen leader Menestheus from Greek mythology.[1]

Quick Facts Discovery, Discovered by ...

Orbit and classification

Menestheus is a dark Jovian asteroid orbiting in the leading Greek camp at Jupiter's L4 Lagrangian point, 60° ahead of the Gas Giant's orbit in a 1:1 resonance (see Trojans in astronomy). It is also a non-family asteroid in the Jovian background population.[6][12]

It orbits the Sun at a distance of 4.8–5.5 AU once every 11 years and 8 months (4,266 days; semi-major axis of 5.15 AU). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.07 and an inclination of 18° with respect to the ecliptic.[3] The body's observation arc begins with its official discovery observation at Palomar in September 1973.[1]

Palomar–Leiden Trojan survey

While the discovery date aligns with the second Palomar–Leiden Trojan survey, Menestheus has not received a "T-2" prefixed survey designation, which was assigned for the discoveries made by the fruitful collaboration between the Palomar and Leiden observatories in the 1960s and 1970s. Gehrels used Palomar's Samuel Oschin telescope (also known as the 48-inch Schmidt Telescope), and shipped the photographic plates to Ingrid and Cornelis van Houten at Leiden Observatory where astrometry was carried out. The trio is credited with the discovery of several thousand asteroids.[13]

Physical characteristics

In both the Tholen- and SMASS-like taxonomy of the Small Solar System Objects Spectroscopic Survey (S3OS2), Menestheus is a dark D-type asteroid.[11][12] It has also been generically assumed to be a carbonaceous C-type asteroid.[4]

Rotation period

Between January 2013, and July 2017, four rotational lightcurves of Menestheus have been obtained from photometric observations by Robert Stephens, Daniel Coley and Brian Warner at the Center for Solar System Studies in collaboration with Linda French, Lawrence Wasserman and other astronomers. Analysis of the best-rated lightcurve gave a rotation period of 14.40 hours with a consolidated brightness amplitude between 0.18 and 0.40 magnitude (U=3-).[4][14][10][15][16][lower-alpha 1]

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, Menestheus measures between 67.625 and 68.46 kilometers in diameter and its surface has an albedo between 0.061 and 0.069.[8][9] The Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link derives an albedo of 0.0722 and a diameter of 62.28 kilometers based on an absolute magnitude of 9.5.[4]

More information Largest Jupiter Trojans by survey(A) (mean-diameter in kilometers; YoD: Year of Discovery), Designation ...
100+ largest Jupiter trojans

Naming

This minor planet was named in Greek mythology after Menestheus, the commander of the Greek contingent from Athens during the Trojan War.[1] The official naming citation was published by the Minor Planet Center on 11 March 1990 (M.P.C. 16043).[17]

Notes

  1. Lightcurve plots of (4068) Menestheus from Jan 2013, May 2015, Apr 2016, and Jul 2017 by Robert Stephens and collaborators at the Center for Solar System Studies (U81)/(U80). Quality code is: n.a./2+/3/3- (lightcurve rating at CS3). Summary figures at the LCDB and CS3.

References

  1. [1]
    "4068 Menestheus (1973 SW)". Minor Planet Center. Retrieved 7 June 2018.
  2. [2]
    Noah Webster (1884) A Practical Dictionary of the English Language
  3. [3]
    "JPL Small-Body Database Browser: 4068 Menestheus (1973 SW)" (2018-05-24 last obs.). Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Retrieved 7 June 2018.
  4. [4]
    "LCDB Data for (4068) Menestheus". Asteroid Lightcurve Database (LCDB). Retrieved 7 June 2018.
  5. [5]
    "List of Jupiter Trojans". Minor Planet Center. 30 May 2018. Retrieved 7 June 2018.
  6. [6]
    "Asteroid (4068) Menestheus". AstDyS-2, Asteroids – Dynamic Site. Retrieved 7 June 2018.
  7. [7]
    Tedesco, E. F.; Noah, P. V.; Noah, M.; Price, S. D. (October 2004). "IRAS Minor Planet Survey V6.0". NASA Planetary Data System – IRAS-A-FPA-3-RDR-IMPS-V6.0: IRAS-A-FPA-3-RDR-IMPS-V6.0. Bibcode:2004PDSS...12.....T. Retrieved 15 June 2018.
  8. [8]
    Grav, T.; Mainzer, A. K.; Bauer, J. M.; Masiero, J. R.; Nugent, C. R. (November 2012). "WISE/NEOWISE Observations of the Jovian Trojan Population: Taxonomy". The Astrophysical Journal. 759 (1): 10. arXiv:1209.1549. Bibcode:2012ApJ...759...49G. doi:10.1088/0004-637X/759/1/49. S2CID 119101711. (online catalog)
  9. [9]
    Usui, Fumihiko; Kuroda, Daisuke; Müller, Thomas G.; Hasegawa, Sunao; Ishiguro, Masateru; Ootsubo, Takafumi; et al. (October 2011). "Asteroid Catalog Using Akari: AKARI/IRC Mid-Infrared Asteroid Survey". Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan. 63 (5): 1117–1138. Bibcode:2011PASJ...63.1117U. doi:10.1093/pasj/63.5.1117. (online, AcuA catalog p. 153)
  10. [10]
    Stephens, Robert D.; Coley, Daniel R.; Warner, Brian D.; French, Linda, M. (October 2016). "Lightcurves of Jovian Trojan Asteroids from the Center for Solar System Studies: L4 Greek Camp and Spies". The Minor Planet Bulletin. 43 (4): 323–331. Bibcode:2016MPBu...43..323S. ISSN 1052-8091.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  11. [11]
    Lazzaro, D.; Angeli, C. A.; Carvano, J. M.; Mothé-Diniz, T.; Duffard, R.; Florczak, M. (November 2004). "S3OS2: the visible spectroscopic survey of 820 asteroids" (PDF). Icarus. 172 (1): 179–220. Bibcode:2004Icar..172..179L. doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2004.06.006. Retrieved 7 June 2017.
  12. [12]
    "Asteroid 4068 Menestheus". Small Bodies Data Ferret. Retrieved 7 June 2018.
  13. [13]
    "Minor Planet Discoverers". Minor Planet Center. 31 May 2018. Retrieved 7 June 2018.
  14. [14]
    French, Linda M.; Stephens, Robert, D.; Coley, Daniel R.; Wasserman, Lawrence H.; Vilas, Faith; La Rocca, Daniel (October 2013). "A Troop of Trojans: Photometry of 24 Jovian Trojan Asteroids". The Minor Planet Bulletin. 40 (4): 198–203. Bibcode:2013MPBu...40..198F. ISSN 1052-8091.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  15. [15]
    Stephens, Robert D.; Coley, Daniel, R.; French, Linda M. (January 2016). "Large L5 Jovian Trojan Asteroid Lightcurves from the Center for Solar System Studies". The Minor Planet Bulletin. 43 (1): 15–22. Bibcode:2016MPBu...43...15S. ISSN 1052-8091.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  16. [16]
    Stephens, Robert D.; Warner, Brian D. (October 2017). "Lightcurve Analysis of L4 Trojan Asteroids at the Center for Solar System Studies 2017 April-June". The Minor Planet Bulletin. 44 (4): 312–316. Bibcode:2017MPBu...44..312S. ISSN 1052-8091.
  17. [17]
    "MPC/MPO/MPS Archive". Minor Planet Center. Retrieved 7 June 2018.
Share this article:

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article 4068_Menestheus, and is written by contributors. Text is available under a CC BY-SA 4.0 International License; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.