Discovered by F. Börngen MPC designation 100268 Rosenthal Minor planet category main-belt · (inner) Discovered 5 October 1994 Discoverer Freimut Börngen | Discovery date 5 October 1994 Alternative names 1994 TL16 · 2003 AG8 Orbital period 1,392 days Orbits Sun Asteroid group Asteroid belt | |
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Named after Hans Rosenthal
(German TV host) Discovery site Karl Schwarzschild Observatory People also search for Sun, 100019 Gregorianik, 100029 Varnhagen, 10114 Greifswald, 100033 Taizé, 10116 Robertfranz | ||
100268 Rosenthal, provisional designation 1994 TL16, is an asteroid from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 3 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 5 October 1994, by German astronomer Freimut Börngen at the Karl Schwarzschild Observatory, Thuringia, eastern Germany.
The asteroid orbits the Sun at a distance of 2.0–2.9 AU once every 3 years and 10 months (1,392 days). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.17 and an inclination of 12° with respect to the ecliptic. The first precovery was taken at the Siding Spring Observatory (DSS) in 1990, extending the asteroid's observation arc by 4 years prior to its discovery. As of 2016, the asteroids effective size, shape and composition, as well as its albedo and rotation period remain unknown.
Based on its absolute magnitude of 15.6, its diameter is between 2 and 5 kilometers, assuming an albedo in the range of 0.05 to 0.25. Since asteroids in the inner main-belt are often of a brighter silicaceous – rather than of a darker carbonaceous composition, with higher albedos, typically around 0.20, the asteroid's diameter might be on the lower end of NASA's published conversion table, as the lower the reflectivity (albedo), the larger the body's diameter for a given absolute magnitude.
The minor planet was named in honour of famous German radio and TV host Hans Rosenthal (1925–1987), a German Jew who survived the Holocaust as a boy inside Germany and became one of the country's most popular TV show masters ever in the early 1980s. He died of cancer at the age of 61. Naming citation was published on 13 April 2006 (M.P.C. 56615).