Discovered by L. Chernykh MPC designation 1789 Dobrovolsky Discovered 19 August 1966 Discoverer Lyudmila Chernykh Asteroid group Asteroid belt | Discovery date 19 August 1966 Minor planet category main-belt · Flora Orbits Sun Asteroid family Flora family | |
Named after Georgy Dobrovolsky
(cosmonaut) Alternative names 1966 QC · 1936 KK
1939 GR · 1943 SG
1946 NA · 1953 TC2
1953 VX3 · 1955 EJ
1956 PD · 1956 RT
1969 OF Discovery site Crimean Astrophysical Observatory People also search for Sun, 8 Flora, 915 Cosette, 967 Helionape, 3412 Kafka, 428 Monachia | ||
1789 Dobrovolsky, provisional designation 1966 QC, is a Florian asteroid from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 8 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 19 August 1966, by Russian astronomer Lyudmila Chernykh at the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory in Nauchnyj on the Crimean peninsula.
The asteroid is a member of the Flora family, a large group of stony S-type asteroids in the inner main-belt. It orbits the Sun at a distance of 1.8–2.6 AU once every 3 years and 3 months (1,203 days). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.19 and an inclination of 2° with respect to the ecliptic. First identified as 1936 KK at Johannesburg, the body's first used observation was taken at Nice Observatory in 1943, when Dobrovolsky was identified as 1943 SG, extending its observation arc by 23 years prior to its official discovery observation.
The so-far best rated rotational light-curve of Dobrovolsky was obtained from photometric observations by American astronomer Brian A. Skiff in March 2011. It gave a rotation period of 4.812 hours with a brightness variation of 0.13 magnitude (U=3). Other light-curves were obtained by Claes-Ingvar Lagerkvist (in 1973) and at the Palomar Transient Factory (in 2014), giving a period of 5.8, 4.800 and 4.8111 hours, respectively (U=2/2/2). A international study from February 2016, published a modeled period of 4.811096 hours (U=n.a.).
According to the survey carried out by NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer with its subsequent NEOWISE mission, Dobrovolsky measures 7.92 kilometers in diameter and its surface has an albedo of 0.185 (best result), while 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 9.85 kilometers based on an absolute magnitude of 12.2.
This minor planet was named in honor of Ukrainian–Soviet cosmonaut Georgiy Timofeyevich Dobrovolsky, commander of the Soyuz 11 spacecraft, who died on 30 June 1971 during the vehicle's return to Earth after completing the flight program of the first manned orbital station, Salyut. The subsequently numbered minor planets 1790 Volkov and 1791 Patsayev were named in honour of his dead crew members. The names of all three cosmonauts are also engraved on the plaque next to the sculpture of the Fallen Astronaut on the Moon, which was placed there during the Apollo 15 mission, containing the names of eight American astronauts and six Soviet cosmonauts, who had all died in service. Naming citation was published before November 1977 (M.P.C. 3296).