Discovered by W. Bickel MPC designation 12564 Ikeller Discovered 22 September 1998 Asteroid group Asteroid belt | Discovery date 22 September 1998 Absolute magnitude 13.6 | |
Named after Ingeborg Bickel–Keller(discoverer's wife) Alternative names 1998 SO49 · 1988 RA71991 EG5 · 1993 SK13 People also search for (32160) 2000 MT2, (29899) 1999 HU1 | ||
12564 Ikeller, provisional designation 1998 SO49, is a stony Koronis asteroid from the outer region of the asteroid belt, approximately 5 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered by German amateur astronomer Wolf Bickel at his private Bergisch Gladbach Observatory on 22 September 1998.
The S-type asteroid is a member of the Koronis family, which is named after 158 Koronis and consists of about 300 known bodies. It orbits the Sun at a distance of 2.7–2.9 AU once every 4 years and 9 months (1,743 days). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.04 and a typically low inclination of 2° with respect to the ecliptic. The first precovery was obtained at ESO's La Silla Observatory in 1988, extending the asteroid's observation arc by 10 years prior to its discovery.
According to the survey carried out by the NEOWISE mission of NASA's space-based Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, the asteroid measures 5.4 kilometers in diameter and its surface has an albedo of 0.22, while the Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link assumes an albedo of 0.24 and thus calculates a smaller diameter of 5.2 kilometers, as the higher the albedo (reflectivity), the smaller the body's diameter at a constant absolute magnitude (brightness). In August 2012, a photometric light-curve analysis at the U.S. Palomar Transient Factory, California, rendered a rotation period of 7000704230000000000♠7.0423±0.0196 hours with a brightness amplitude of 0.44 in magnitude (U=2).
The minor planet was named by the discoverer after his wife, Ingeborg Bickel–Keller (b. 1941). Naming citation was published on 16 January 2014 (M.P.C. 86713).