Discovered by M. Wolf MPC designation 1703 Barry Discovered 2 September 1930 Discoverer Max Wolf Asteroid group Asteroid belt | Discovery date 2 September 1930 Minor planet category main-belt · Flora Orbits Sun Asteroid family Flora family | |
Named after Roger Barry (astronomer) Alternative names 1930 RB · 1939 FD
1940 TP · 1943 PA
1953 PK · 1963 SB Discovery site Landessternwarte Heidelberg-Königstuhl Similar 540 Rosamunde, 807 Ceraskia, 509 Iolanda, 352 Gisela, 908 Buda | ||
1703 Barry, provisional designation 1930 RB, is a stony Florian asteroid, relatively slow rotator and suspected tumbler from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 9.5 kilometer in diameter. It was discovered on 2 September 1930, by German astronomer Max Wolf at Heidelberg Observatory in southern Germany. In the same month, it was independently discovered by Dutch astronomer Hendrik van Gent and Soviet astronomer Evgenii Skvortsov at their observatories in Johannesburg and Crimea-Nauchnij, respectively.
The relatively bright S-type asteroid is a member of the Flora family, one of the largest collisional groups in the main-belt. It orbits the Sun at a distance of 1.8–2.6 AU once every 3 years and 4 months (1,204 days). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.17 and an inclination of 5° with respect to the ecliptic.
Photometric observations taken in 2006 and 2011, by Adrián Galád and by the Palomar Transient Factory, showed a leisurely rotation period of 105.745 and 7002107100000000000♠107.1±0.5 hours with a brightness variation of 6999500000000000000♠0.5 and 0.46 magnitude, respectively (U=3/2). It may have a non-principal axis rotation. However, no follow-up measurements have since confirmed its tumbling motion.
According to the surveys carried out by the Infrared Astronomical Satellite IRAS, the Japanese Akari satellite, and NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer with its subsequent NEOWISE mission, Barry measures between 9.21 and 9.50 kilometers in diameter and its surface has an albedo between 0.216 and 0.330, while the Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link derives an albedo of 0.280 and a diameter of 9.54 kilometers based on an absolute magnitude of 12.1.
The asteroid is named after Vincentian priest Roger Barry (1752–1813), the Court Astronomer of Grand Duchy of Baden at the Mannheim Observatory in 1788. The Heidelberg Observatory is a direct successor to the old Mannheim Observatory. Naming citation was published before November 1977 (M.P.C. 3933).