Discovered by A. Boattini
L. Tesi MPC designation 15460 Manca Minor planet category main-belt · Koronis Orbits Sun Asteroid group Asteroid belt | Discovery date 25 December 1998 Alternative names 1998 YD10 · 1994 ET1 Discovered 25 December 1998 Asteroid family Koronis family | |
Named after Francesco Manca
(astronomer) Discovery site Pistoia Mountains Astronomical Observatory Discoverers Andrea Boattini, Luciano Tesi Similar Sun, 208 Lacrimosa, 277 Elvira, 9916 Kibirev, 532 Herculina | ||
15460 Manca, provisional designation 1998 YD10, is a Koronian asteroid from the outer region of the asteroid belt, approximately 5 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 25 December 1998, by Italian astronomers Andrea Boattini and Luciano Tesi at Pistoia Mountains Astronomical Observatory in San Marcello Pistoiese, central Italy.
The stony S-type asteroid belongs to the Koronis family, a group consisting of few hundred known bodies with nearly ecliptical orbits. It is also classified as a X-type asteroid by Pan-STARRS' large-scale survey. Manca orbits the Sun at a distance of 2.6–3.2 AU once every 4 years and 11 months (1,809 days). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.09 and an inclination of 3° with respect to the ecliptic. The first precovery was taken at Palomar Observatory in 1950, extending the asteroid's observation arc by 48 years prior to its discovery.
In August 2012, a rotational light-curve was obtained for Manca from photometric observations made at the Palomar Transient Factory, California. It gave it a rotation period of 7000727230000000000♠7.2723±0.0209 hours with a brightness variation of 0.22 magnitude (U=2).
According to the survey carried out by NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer with its subsequent NEOWISE mission, the asteroid measures 5.35 kilometers in diameter and its surface has an albedo of 0.295. The Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link assumes a standard albedo for members of the Koronian family of 0.24, and calculates a diameter of 5.17 kilometers, based on an absolute magnitude of 13.6.
The minor planet was named for Italian amateur astronomer Francesco Manca (b. 1966), member of the "Gruppo Astrofili Brianza" and an active observer of near-Earth objects, and potentially hazardous asteroids in particular, at Sormano Astronomical Observatory in northern Italy. Naming citation was published on 13 October 2000 (M.P.C. 41388).