Discovered by K. Reinmuth MPC designation 1739 Meyermann Discovered 15 August 1939 Discoverer Karl Wilhelm Reinmuth Asteroid group Asteroid belt | Discovery date 15 August 1939 Orbits Sun | |
Named after Bruno Meyermann(astronomer) Alternative names 1939 PF · 1929 TB11935 GN · 1952 HN31953 XO1 · 1963 TG Discovery site Landessternwarte Heidelberg-Königstuhl Similar 1862 Apollo, Sun, 1419 Danzig, 1056 Azalea, 1111 Reinmuthia | ||
1739 Meyermann, provisional designation 1939 PF, is a stony Florian asteroid from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 7.5 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered by German astronomer Karl Reinmuth at Heidelberg Observatory on 15 August 1939.
The asteroid is a member of the Flora family, a large group of S-type asteroids in the inner main-belt. It orbits the Sun at a distance of 2.0–2.5 AU once every 3 years and 5 months (1,242 days). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.12 and an inclination of 3° with respect to the ecliptic. Meyermann was first identified as 1929 TB1 at Lowell Observatory in 1929, extending the body's observation arc by 10 years prior to its official discovery observation at Heidelberg.
Two rotational light-curves of Meyermann were obtained from photometric observations taken by Czech astronomer Petr Pravec at Ondřejov Observatory in 2007 and 2014. They gave a rotation period of 2.8212 and 2.8219 hours with a brightness variation of 0.12 and 0.17 magnitude, respectively (U=3/3).
According to the refitted 2014-results from the survey carried out by the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer with its NEOWISE missions, Meyermann measures 7.858 kilometers in diameter, and its surface has an albedo of 0.254. The Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link assumes an albedo of 0.24 – derived from 8 Flora, the largest member and namesake of its family – and calculates a diameter of 7.47 kilometers based on an absolute magnitude of 12.8.
This minor planet was named in memory of Bruno Meyermann (1876–1963), a classical astronomer and academic teacher at Göttingen Observatory in Lower Saxony, Germany. His fields of interest included polar motion and relativistic effects. Naming citation was published before November 1977 (M.P.C. 4155).