Discovered by P. G. Comba Discovery date 16 October 1996 Alternative names 1996 UA | Discovery site Prescott Obs. MPC designation 16765 Agnesi | |
Named after Maria Agnesi(mathematician) | ||
16765 Agnesi, provisional designation 1996 UA, is a stony Eunomia asteroid from the middle region of the asteroid belt, approximately 4 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 16 October 1996, by Italian-American amateur astronomer Paul Comba at his private Prescott Observatory in the U.S. state of Arizona.
The asteroid is a member of the Eunomia family, a large group of S-type asteroids and the most prominent family in the intermediate main-belt. It orbits the Sun at a distance of 2.3–2.9 AU once every 4 years and 3 months (1,553 days). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.11 and an inclination of 12° with respect to the ecliptic. It was first observed by Haleakala–NEAT/GEODSS (566), extending the asteroid's observation arc by 32 days prior to its official discovery observation.
According to the NEOWISE mission of NASA's space-based Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, the asteroid measures 4.1 kilometers in diameter and its surface has an albedo of 0.28, while the Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link assumes an albedo of 0.21 – derived from 15 Eunomia, the family's largest member and namesake – and calculates a diameter of 3.8 kilometers. A rotational light-curve of this asteroid was obtained from photometric observations made at the U.S. Palomar Transient Factory in September 2013. The light-curve gave a rotation period of 7000754580000000000♠7.5458±0.0034 hours with a brightness variation of 6999310000000000000♠0.31 in magnitude (U=2).
The minor planet was named in honour of Italian Maria Gaetana Agnesi (1718–1799), who was the first Western woman to write a widely translated mathematics handbook and the first woman appointed to a professorship at a university in 1750. Naming citation was published on 9 January 2001 (M.P.C. 41941).