Discovered by K. Endate
K. Watanabe MPC designation (5648) 1990 VU1 Observation arc 66.41 yr (24,255 days) Orbits Sun Asteroid group Jupiter trojan | Discovery date 11 November 1990 Alternative names 1990 VU1 Discovered 11 November 1990 Discovery site Kitami Observatory | |
Minor planet category Jupiter trojan
(Trojan camp) Discoverers Kin Endate, Kazuro Watanabe People also search for 5692 Shirao, Sun, 4971 Hoshinohiroba | ||
(5648) 1990 VU1 is a carbonaceous Jupiter trojan from the Trojan camp, approximately 60 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 11 November 1990, by Japanese amateur astronomers Kin Endate and Kazuro Watanabe at the Kitami Observatory on the northern island of Hokkaidō, Japan.
The C-type Jovian asteroid orbits the Sun at a distance of 4.3–6.0 AU once every 11 years and 8 months (4,273 days). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.16 and an inclination of 23° with respect to the ecliptic. The first precovery was taken at the U.S. Palomar Observatory in 1950, extending the asteroid's observation arc by 40 years prior to its discovery.
Photometric observations of this asteroid during 1994 were used to build a light curve showing a rotation period of 37.56 ± 0.05 hours with a brightness variation of 0.20 ± 0.03 magnitude.
According to the survey carried out by the NEOWISE mission of NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, the asteroid measures 59.3 kilometers in diameter and its surface has an albedo of 0.073, while the Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link assumes a standard albedo for carbonaceous asteroids of 0.057 and calculates a somewhat larger diameter of 66.9 kilometers, as the lower a body's albedo (reflectivity), the larger its diameter, at a constant absolute magnitude (brightness).