Discovered by A. Boattini MPC designation 12848 Agostino Minor planet category main-belt · Eunomia Orbits Sun Asteroid family Eunomia family Asteroid group Asteroid belt | Discovery date 10 July 1997 Alternative names 1997 NK10 · 1993 QQ10 Discovered 10 July 1997 Discoverer Andrea Boattini Discovery site Campo Imperatore Station | |
Named after Agostino Boattini
(discoverer's father) Similar Sun, 390 Alma, 85 Io | ||
12848 Agostino, provisional designation 1997 NK10, is a stony Eunomia asteroid from the middle region of the asteroid belt, approximately 5 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 10 July 1997, by Italian astronomer Andrea Boattini at the Campo Imperatore Observatory in the Gran Sasso massif of central Italy.
The asteroid is a member of the Eunomia family, a large group of stony S-type asteroids and the most prominent family in the intermediate main-belt. It orbits the Sun at a distance of 2.4–2.9 AU once every 4 years and 2 months (1,535 days). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.10 and an inclination of 15° with respect to the ecliptic. The first precovery was obtained at Palomar Observatory in 1950, extending the asteroid's observation arc by 47 years prior to its discovery.
Two rotational light-curves of this asteroid were obtained from photometric observations made at the U.S. Palomar Transient Factory in August 2010 and February 2012, respectively. The light-curves gave a rotation period of 7000633500000000000♠6.3350±0.0258 and 7000632250000000000♠6.3225±0.0052 hours with a respective brightness variation of 0.51 and 0.84 in magnitude (U=2/2). According to the NEOWISE mission of NASA's space-based Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, the asteroid measures 4.9 kilometers in diameter and its surface has an albedo of 0.23, while the Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link assumes an albedo of 0.21 – derived from 15 Eunomia, the family's largest member and namesake – and calculates a diameter of 4.6 kilometers.
The minor planet was named after Agostino Boattini (b. 1932), the father of the discoverer. Naming citation was published on 9 May 2001 (M.P.C. 42673).