Discovered by K. Reinmuth MPC designation 1443 Ruppina Alternative names 1937 YG · 1931 TX3 Discovered 29 December 1937 Discoverer Karl Wilhelm Reinmuth Asteroid group Asteroid belt | Discovery date 29 December 1937 Minor planet category main-belt · (outer) Orbits Sun Asteroid family Koronis family | |
Discovery site Landessternwarte Heidelberg-Königstuhl Similar 1862 Apollo, Sun, 1419 Danzig, 1056 Azalea, 1111 Reinmuthia | ||
1443 Ruppina, provisional designation 1937 YG, is an asteroid from the outer region of the asteroid belt, approximately 17 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 29 December 1937, by German astronomer Karl Reinmuth at Heidelberg Observatory in southern Germany. It is named for the German city Ruppin.
Description
Ruppina asteroid orbits the Sun at a distance of 2.7–3.1 AU once every 5.04 years (1,839 days). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.06 and an inclination of 2° with respect to the ecliptic. In 1931, Ruppina was first identified as 1931 TX3 at Lowell Observatory, extending the body's observation arc by 6 years prior to its official discovery at Heidelberg.
In November 2007, the first rotational light-curve of Ruppina was obtained at Whitin Observatory in Massachusetts, United States. Light-curve analysis gave a well-defined rotation period of 5.880 hours with a brightness variation of 0.35 magnitude (U=3). During the 2014 apparition of Ruppina, an identical period was obtained again at Whitin Observatory (U=3), while photometric observations in the R-band at the Palomar Transient Factory in California, gave a period of 5.890 and 5.9046 hours with an amplitude of 0.27 and 0.28, respectively (U=2/2).
According to the surveys carried out by the Japanese Akari satellite and NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer with its subsequent NEOWISE mission, Ruppina measures approximately 16.5 kilometers in diameter and its surface has an albedo of 0.176 and 0.21, respectively. Observations at the Whitin Observatory gave an albedo of 0.20 and a diameter of 18 kilometers, while the Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link assumes a standard albedo for carbonaceous C-type asteroids of 0.057, and consequently derives a much larger diameter of 32.18 kilometers using an absolute magnitude of 11.19.
This minor planet is named for the German city of Ruppin, birthplace of astronomer Martin Ebell, who proposed the name and after whom the minor planet 1205 Ebella is named. Naming citation was first mentioned in The Names of the Minor Planets by Paul Herget in 1955 (H 130).