Discovered by L. Chernykh MPC designation 1772 Gagarin Observation arc 76.21 yr (27,835 days) Orbits Sun Named after Yuri Gagarin (Astronaut) | Discovery date 6 February 1968 Minor planet category main-belt · (middle) Discovered 6 February 1968 Discoverer Lyudmila Chernykh Asteroid group Asteroid belt | |
Alternative names 1968 CB · 1940 GA
1942 VZ · 1948 ET
1960 FH · 1969 OO Discovery site Crimean Astrophysical Observatory Similar Asteroid belt, Solar System, Sun, 45 Eugenia, 216 Kleopatra | ||
1772 Gagarin, provisional designation 1968 CB, is a stony asteroid from the middle region of the asteroid belt, approximately 9 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 6 February 1968, by Russian astronomer Lyudmila Chernykh at the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory in Nauchnyj, on the Crimean peninsula.
The asteroid orbits the Sun at a distance of 2.3–2.8 AU once every 4.02 years (1,467 days). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.11 and an inclination of 6° with respect to the ecliptic. Gagarin first observation is a precovery that was taken at Turku Observatory in 1940, extending the body's observation arc by 28 years prior to its official discovery observation.
In February 1984, a rotational light-curve of Gagarin obtained by American astronomer Richard P. Binzel gave a rotation period of 10.96 hours with a brightness variation of 0.24 magnitude (U=2). Photometric observations at the Californian Palomar Transient Factory in December 2011, gave a 10.9430 hours with an amplitude of 0.41 (U=2). in 2001 and 2016, additional light-curve were obtained from modeled photometric data, giving a period of 10.94130 and 10.93791 hours (U=n.a.).
According to the survey carried out by NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer with its subsequent NEOWISE mission, Gagarin measures between 8.83 and 9.63 kilometers in diameter, and its surface has an albedo between 0.138 and 0.164, The Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link assumes a standard albedo of 0.20 and derives a diameter of 8.00 kilometers based on an absolute magnitude of 12.85.
This minor planet was named for Russian–Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin (1934–1968), Hero of the Soviet Union and first human to journey into outer space by circumnavigating Earth in 1961. Gagarin died in a jet fighter crash in 1968, the year the asteroid was discovered. The lunar crater Gagarin is also named in his honor. Naming citation was published before November 1977 (M.P.C. 3185).