Discovered by E. Bowell MPC designation 15224 Penttilä Discovered 15 May 1985 Discoverer Edward L. G. Bowell Asteroid group Asteroid belt | Discovery date 15 May 1985 Minor planet category main-belt · (inner) Absolute magnitude 13.8 | |
Named after Antti Penttilä(astronomer) Alternative names 1985 JG · 1970 HB2000 HR19 | ||
15224 Penttilä, provisional designation 1985 JG, is a stony asteroid from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 7 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 15 May 1985, by American astronomer Edward Bowell at Lowell's Anderson Mesa Station, Arizona.
The S-type asteroid orbits the Sun at a distance of 1.8–3.0 AU once every 3 years and 9 months (1,372 days). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.24 and an inclination of 12° with respect to the ecliptic. Due to precovery images taken at the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory in 1970, the asteroid's observation arc spans over a period of almost half a century.
In June 2015, a rotational light-curve was obtained for this asteroid from photometric observations by astronomer Daniel Klinglesmith at Etscorn Campus Observatory (719), New Mexico . It gave it a rotation period of 7000437700000000000♠4.377±0.001 hours with a brightness amplitude of 0.55 in magnitude (U=3-). Previously, in August 2012, a nearly identical photometric result in the R-band was obtained at the U.S. Palomar Transient Factory, California. The light-curve gave a period of 7000437710000000000♠4.3771±0.0064 hours with a magnitude variation of 0.46 (U=2).
According to the surveys carried out by NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer with its subsequent NEOWISE mission, the asteroid measures 7.9 and 8.8 kilometers in diameter, with a low albedo of 0.085 and 0.069, respectively. However, the Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link assumes a standard albedo for stony asteroids of 0.20, and hence calculates a smaller diameter of 4.9 kilometers.
The minor planet was named for Finish postdoctoral researcher Antti Penttilä (b. 1977) at the University of Helsinki, and an expert on light reflection and absorption on the surface of small Solar System bodies such as asteroids and cometary nuclei, as well as of the cosmic dust released by cometary comae. Naming citation was published on 12 July 2014 (M.P.C. 89081).