Discovered by LONEOS MPC designation 17035 Velichko Discovered 22 March 1999 Asteroid group Asteroid belt | Discovery date 22 March 1999 Minor planet category main-belt · Vestian Orbits Sun | |
Named after Fedor Velichko(astronomer) Alternative names 1999 FC10 · 1989 TD21991 EX1 Discoverer Lowell Observatory Near-Earth-Object Search People also search for Sun, 3850 Peltier, 1800 Aguilar | ||
17035 Velichko, provisional designation 1999 FC10, is a Vestian asteroid from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, about 4.5 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered by the Lowell Observatory Near-Earth Object Search (LONEOS) at the U.S. Anderson Mesa Station near Flagstaff, Arizona, on 22 March 1999.
The vestoid or V-type asteroid is a core member of the Vesta family. All asteroids with these spectral and orbital characteristics are thought to have originated from the Rheasilvia crater, a large impact crater on the south-polar surface of 4 Vesta, which is the main-belt's second-most-massive asteroid after 1 Ceres. It orbits the Sun at a distance of 2.1–2.8 AU once every 3 years and 10 months (1,395 days). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.15 and an inclination of 6° with respect to the ecliptic. The first precovery was obtained at ESO's La Silla Observatory in 1989, extending the asteroid's observation arc by 10 years prior to its discovery.
Two photometric light-curve analysis by French astronomer René Roy at Blauvac Observatory (627), France, and at the U.S. Palomar Transient Factory, California, gave a rotation period of 7000289900000000000♠2.899±0.001 and 7000289900000000000♠2.8990±0.0006 hours with a brightness amplitude of 0.23 and 0.29 in magnitude, respectively (U=2/2).
According to the survey carried out by the NEOWISE mission of NASA's space-based Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, the asteroid has a diameter of 4.8 kilometers and an albedo of 0.28. The Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link assumes a much higher albedo of 0.40, which is typical value for the bright stony surface of Vestian asteroids, and calculates a shorter diameter of 4.2 kilometers.
The minor planet was named after Ukrainian astronomer Fedor P. Velichko (1957–2013), who was a senior scientist at the Institute of Astronomy of the Ukrainian National University of Kharkiv, and director of the University's Chuguev Observing Station (131), also known as the Chuguevskaya Station. He was an expert on the photometry and polarimetry of small Solar System bodies. Naming citation was published on 21 July 2005 (M.P.C. 54563).