Discovery date 24 September 1960 Minor planet category main-belt · (middle) Orbits Sun Discovery site Palomar Observatory | MPC designation 1777 Gehrels Discovered 24 September 1960 Named after Tom Gehrels (astronomer) Asteroid group Asteroid belt | |
Discovered by C. J. van Houten
I. van Houten-G.
T. Gehrels Alternative names 4007 P-L · 1937 GN
1941 BU · 1951 QB
1958 DA · A905 UE
A923 AA Observation arc 111.01 yr (40,545 days) Discoverers Tom Gehrels, Cornelis Johannes van Houten, Ingrid van Houten-Groeneveld People also search for Sun, 78P/Gehrels, 9511 Klingsor | ||
1777 Gehrels, also designated 4007 P-L, is a stony asteroid from the middle region of the asteroid belt, approximately 13 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered during the Palomar–Leiden survey by the Dutch astronomer couple Ingrid and Cornelis van Houten, in collaboration with Dutch–American astronomer Tom Gehrels at Palomar Observatory, California, on 24 September 1960.
The stony asteroid is classified as a transitional Sq-type in the SMASS classification taxonomy. It orbits the Sun at a distance of 2.6–2.7 AU once every 4 years and 3 months (1,554 days). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.02 and an inclination of 3° with respect to the ecliptic. It has an albedo between 0.215 and 0.277, a diameter between 11.9 and 13.1 kilometers, and a well-defined rotation period between 2.83 and 2.84 hours with a brightness variation between 0.21 and 0.26 magnitude.
The survey designation "P-L" stands for Palomar–Leiden, named after Palomar and Leiden Observatory, which collaborated on the fruitful Palomar–Leiden survey in the 1960s. Gehrels used Palomar's Samuel Oschin telescope (also known as the 48-inch Schmidt Telescope), and shipped the photographic plates to Ingrid and Cornelis van Houten at Leiden Observatory, where astrometry was carried out. The trio are credited with the discovery of several thousand minor planets.
The minor planet was named in honor of Dutch-born American astronomer Tom Gehrels (1925–2011), professor at the University of Arizona, staff member of the LPL research center at Tucson, a principal investigator in the Pioneer program, receiver of the Masursky Award, initiator of the Spacewatch project, and co-discoverer of thousands of minor planets in the Palomar–Leiden survey (see above). He was a pioneer in the field of photometric and polarimetric observations of Solar System bodies in the 1950s. Naming citation was published before November 1977 (M.P.C. 3185).