Discovered by G. van Biesbroeck Minor planet category main-belt · (outer) Discovered 27 July 1933 Discoverer George Van Biesbroeck Asteroid group Asteroid belt | Discovery date 27 July 1933 Observation arc 83.29 yr (30,422 days) Orbits Sun Discovery site Yerkes Observatory MPC designation 1312 | |
Named after Vassar College
(Vassar Observatory) Alternative names 1933 OT · 1944 QE
A908 CD Similar Asteroid belt, 1270 Datura, Sun | ||
1312 Vassar, provisional designation 1933 OT, is a carbonaceous asteroid from the outer region of the asteroid belt, approximately 30 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 27 July 1933, by Belgian–American astronomer George Van Biesbroeck at Yerkes Observatory in Wisconsin, United States.
Vassar is a dark C-type asteroid that orbits the Sun at a distance of 2.4–3.8 AU once every 5 years and 5 months (1,987 days). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.22 and an inclination of 22° with respect to the ecliptic. In 1908, it was first identified as A908 CD at Heidelberg Observatory. The body's observation arc begins with its official discovery observation at Yerkes in 1933.
In November 2011, American amateur astronomer David Higgins obtained a rotational light-curve of Vassar from photometric observations takend at the Hunters Hill Observatory (E14) in Australia. It gave a well-defined rotation period of 7.932 hours with a brightness variation of 0.35 magnitude (U=3). In 2016, two modeled light-curves were derived using data from the Lowell photometric database and other sources, giving a concurring period of 7.93189 and 7.93190 hours and a spin axis of (104.0°, −50°) and (251.0°, −23.0°) in ecliptic coordinates, respectively (U=n.a.).
According to the surveys carried out by the Infrared Astronomical Satellite IRAS, the Japanese Akari satellite, and NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer with its subsequent NEOWISE mission, Vassar measures between 27.56 and 36.28 kilometers in diameter, and its surface has an albedo between 0.064 and 0.09. The Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link agrees with the results obtained by IRAS and derives an albedo of 0.0703 and a diameter of 36.32 kilometers based on an absolute magnitude of 10.7.
This minor planet was named by American astronomer Maud Worcester Makemson (1891–1977) after the U.S Vassar College (formerly: Vassar Female College), located in New York state. Makemson, who computed the asteroid's orbit, was a teacher at the private elite school and director of its Vassar College Observatory. Naming citation was first published in The Names of the Minor Planets by Paul Herget in 1955 (H 120).