Discovered by L. V. Zhuravleva MPC designation 15258 Alfilipenko Minor planet category main-belt · (outer) Absolute magnitude 13.1 Discoverer Lyudmila Zhuravleva | Discovery date 15 September 1990 Alternative names 1990 RN17 · 1998 BJ11 Discovered 15 September 1990 Orbits Sun Asteroid group Asteroid belt | |
Named after Alexander Menshikov
(Russian civil engineer) Discovery site Crimean Astrophysical Observatory | ||
15258 Alfilipenko, provisional designation 1990 RN17, is a carbonaceous asteroid from the outer region of the asteroid belt, approximately 12 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 15 September 1990, by Russian–Ukraininan astronomer Lyudmila Zhuravleva at the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory, Nauchnyj, on the Crimean peninsula.
The dark C-type asteroid orbits the Sun at a distance of 2.7–3.8 AU once every 5 years and 10 months (2,132 days). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.17 and an inclination of 7° with respect to the ecliptic. No precoveries were taken prior to its discovery.
A rotational light-curve of this asteroid was obtained from photometric observations made at the U.S. Palomar Transient Factory in October 2013. The light-curve gave a rotation period of 7000436550000000000♠4.3655±0.0016 hours with a brightness variation of 0.11 in magnitude (U=2). According to the survey carried out by the NEOWISE mission of NASA's space-based Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, the asteroid measures 12.1 kilometers in diameter and its surface has an albedo of 0.084, while the Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link assumes a standard albedo for carbonaceous asteroids of 0.057 and calculates a diameter of 11.3 kilometers, based on an absolute magnitude of 13.46.
The minor planet was named in honour of Russian civil engineer Aleksandr Vasil'evich Filipenko (b. 1950) from Khanty-Mansiysk, Siberia. He is the chairman of a charitable foundation for the memory of Alexander Danilovich Menshikov (1673–1729), after whom the minor planet 3889 Menshikov is named. Naming citation was published on 13 July 2004 (M.P.C. 52323).