Discovered by LINEAR Discovery date 5 April 2000 Minor planet category main-belt · Koronis Discovered 5 April 2000 Asteroid family Koronis family | Discovery site Lincoln Lab ETS Alternative names 2000 GL74 · 1973 VM Observation arc 16138 days (44.18 yr) Absolute magnitude 13.8 Asteroid group Asteroid belt | |
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Discoverer Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research Similar 208 Lacrimosa, 277 Elvira, 9916 Kibirev, 532 Herculina, 311 Claudia | ||
17246 Christophedumas, provisional designation 2000 GL74, is a binary asteroid from the main-belt and member of the Koronis family, about 5 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 5 April 2000, by the Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research (LINEAR) program at Lincoln Laboratory's Experimental Test Site near Socorro, New Mexico. It is known to possess an asteroid moon, designated S/2004 (17246) 1. The S-type asteroid orbits the Sun at a distance of 2.8–2.9 AU once every 4 years and 9 months (1,748 days) and shows an eccentricity of 0.02 and an inclination of 2 degrees from the plane of the ecliptic.
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Characteristics
17246 Christophedumas is more reflective than most asteroids, with an albedo of 0.21. Even so, it is not very large, having a size of only 4.5 kilometres. Its rotation period of 10 hours is not unusual, however.
Close approaches
On January 9, 2129, the asteroid will come within 3,639,998 kilometers of 3 Juno, one of the largest asteroids in the main-belt, and will pass it with a relative velocity of 6.597 km/s.
Moon
17246 Christophedumas has one moon, S/2004 (17246) 1. It is 44% the size of its primary, at 2 km. While its rotation period and orbital eccentricity is not yet known, it is known that the moon completes one orbit every 90 days at a distance of about 250 km. From the surface of 17246 Christophedumas, S/2004 (17246) 1 would have an apparent diameter of about 0.668°, slightly larger than the Moon appears from Earth.