Discovered by E. Delporte MPC designation 1754 Cunningham Discovered 29 March 1935 Orbits Sun Asteroid group Asteroid belt | Discovery date 29 March 1935 Minor planet category main-belt · Hilda Absolute magnitude 9.77 Discoverer Eugène Joseph Delporte | |
Named after Leland Cunningham
(astronomer) Alternative names 1935 FE · 1938 RE
1943 GH · 1951 FB
1952 HO1 · 1952 KB1
1954 UD1 · 1962 TG
1967 EE · 1968 KR
1969 PJ · A904 JB Discovery site Royal Observatory of Belgium Similar 1221 Amor, 2101 Adonis, Sun | ||
1754 cunningham dr saint cloud 34771
1754 Cunningham, provisional designation 1935 FE, is a Hildian asteroid from the outermost region of the asteroid belt, approximately 80 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 29 March 1935, by Belgian astronomer Eugène Delporte at the Royal Observatory of Belgium in Uccle.
Cunningham is a dark and reddish asteroid and member of the Hilda family, a large group that orbits in resonance with the gas giant Jupiter and are thought to originate from the Kuiper belt. It orbits the Sun at a distance of 3.3–4.6 AU once every 7 years and 10 months (2,858 days). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.17 and an inclination of 12° with respect to the ecliptic. It was first identified as A904 JB at Heidelberg Observatory in 1904, extending the body's observation arc by 31 years prior to its official discovery observation.
In July 2015, a rotational light-curve of Cunningham was obtained from photometric observation by American amateur astronomer Robert D. Stephens at the Center for Solar System Studies in California. It gave a well-defined rotation period of 7.7416 hours with a brightness variation of 0.17 magnitude (U=3). A similar period of 7.7398 hours with an amplitude of 0.16 was previously obtained by French and Italian amateur astronomers Pierre Antonini and Silvano Casulli in July 2008 (U=2). Other light-curves gave a shorter period of 4.285 and 5.16 hours (U=2/n.a.).
According to the surveys carried out by the Infrared Astronomical Satellite IRAS and the Japanese Akari satellite, Cunningham measures 79.52 and 83.55 kilometers in diameter, and its surface has an albedo of 0.035 and 0.031, respectively. The Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link agrees with the results found by IRAS, that is an albedo of 0.035 and a diameter of 79.52 kilometers with on an absolute magnitude of 9.77. Cunningham belongs to a small group asteroids with a spectral P-type in the Tholen classification scheme.
This minor planet was named in honor of American astronomer Leland Cunningham (1904–1989), who began his career as an assistant to astronomer Fred Whipple (also see 1940 Whipple) at Harvard University in the 1930s and worked at the Leuschner Observatory of University of California during the 1940s and 1950s. Cunningham discovered four minor planets himself and was a prolific computer of cometary orbits and observer of faint comets, including comet Gale, a lost comet he recovered in 1938. Naming citation was published before November 1977 (M.P.C. 3934).