Discovered by Y. Väisälä MPC designation 1500 Jyväskylä Alternative names 1938 UH Discovered 16 October 1938 Spectral type S-type asteroid Named after Jyväskylä (Finnish city) Discovery site Iso-Heikkilä Observatory | Discovery date 16 October 1938 Pronunciation jyvæs-kylæ Minor planet category main-belt · Flora Orbits Sun Discoverer Yrjö Väisälä Asteroid family Flora family | |
1500 Jyväskylä (jyvæs-kylæ), provisional designation 1938 UH, is a stony Florian asteroid from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 7 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 16 October 1938, by Finnish astronomer Yrjö Väisälä at the Turku Observatory in Southwest Finland.
Jyväskylä is a S-type asteroid and member of the Flora family, a large collisional group of stony asteroids in the main-belt. It orbits the Sun at a distance of 1.8–2.7 AU once every 3 years and 4 months (1,227 days). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.19 and an inclination of 7° with respect to the ecliptic. The body's observation arc begins at Turku, 3 weeks prior to its official discovery observation.
In 2016, a modeled light-curve was derived from data contained in the Lowell photometric database. Light-curve analysis gave it a rotation period of 8.8275 hours and a spin axis of (123°, −75.0°) in ecliptic coordinates (U=n.a.).
According to the survey carried out by NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer with its subsequent NEOWISE mission, the asteroid measures between 7.39 and 8.095 kilometers in diameter, and its surface has an albedo between 0.161 and 0.31. The Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link assumes an albedo of 0.24 – derived from 8 Flora, the largest member and namesake of this family – and calculates a diameter of 6.63 kilometers, using an absolute magnitude of 13.06.
This minor planet was named for the Finnish town Jyväskylä. It is the largest city in the region of Central Finland and on the Finnish Lakeland. Naming citation was published before November 1977 (M.P.C. 3928).