Discovered by Y. Väisälä MPC designation 1449 Virtanen Minor planet category main-belt · Flora Orbits Sun Discoverer Yrjö Väisälä Discovery site Iso-Heikkilä Observatory | Discovery date 20 February 1938 Alternative names 1938 DO · 1928 DC Discovered 20 February 1938 Spectral type S-type asteroid Asteroid family Flora family | |
Named after Artturi Virtanen (biochemist) Similar 1450 Raimonda, 423 Diotima, Solar System, Sun, 107 Camilla | ||
1449 Virtanen, provisional designation 1938 DO, is a stony Florian asteroid from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 9.2 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 20 February 1938, by Finnish astronomer Yrjö Väisälä at Turku Observatory in Southwest Finland, and named for Finnish biochemist Artturi Virtanen.
Description
In the Tholen taxonomy, Virtanen is a S-type asteroid. It is a member of the Flora family, one of the largest collisional populations of stony asteroids in the main-belt. It orbits the Sun at a distance of 1.9–2.5 AU once every 3 years and 4 months (1,210 days). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.14 and an inclination of 7° with respect to the ecliptic. In 1928, Virtanen was first identified as 1928 DC at Heidelberg, extending the body's observation arc by 10 years prior to its official discovery at Turku.
Virtanen's first rotational light-curve was obtained by astronomers Pierre Antonini and Silvano Casulli in May 2007, followed by Australian astronomer Julian Oey at Leura (E17) and Kingsgrove Observatory (E19) in June 2008. The light-curves gave a rotation period of approximately 30.5 hours with a brightness variation of 0.6 magnitude (U=2-/3-/3-). Additional periods were obtained from photometric observation in the R and S-band at the Palomar Transient Factory (U=2/2/2), and from modeled data using the Lowell photometric database and other data sources, which also gave two spin axis of (307.0°, 58.0°) and (89.0°, 61.0°) in ecliptic coordinates, respectively (U=n.a.).
According to the survey carried out by NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer with its subsequent NEOWISE mission, Virtanen measures between 9.15 and 9.947 kilometers in diameter, and its surface has an albedo between 0.285 and 0.36. The Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link assumes an albedo of 0.24 – derived from 8 Flora, the largest member and namesake of its family – and calculates a diameter of 10.31 kilometers based on an absolute magnitude of 12.1.
This minor planet was named for famous Finnish biochemist Artturi Virtanen (1895–1973), recipient of the 1945 Nobel Prize in Chemistry and president of the Academy of Finland for many years. Naming citation was published before November 1977 (M.P.C. 3023).