Discovered by T. Smirnova MPC designation 1793 Zoya Discovered 28 February 1968 Asteroid group Asteroid belt | Discovery date 28 February 1968 Orbits Sun | |
Alternative names 1968 DW · 1932 MC1933 UV · 1946 TC1949 QX · 1951 AE1953 VP2 · 1953 VW11953 XF · 1969 RP1 Similar 218 Bianca, Sun, 8 Flora | ||
1793 Zoya, provisional designation 1968 DW, is a stony Florian asteroid from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 9 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 28 February 1968, by Russian astronomer Tamara Smirnova at the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory in Nauchnyj, on the Crimean peninsula.
Zoya 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 2.0–2.4 AU once every 3 years and 4 months (1,211 days). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.10 and an inclination of 2° with respect to the ecliptic. First identified as 1932 MC at Johannesburg, Zoya's first used observation was taken at Uccle Observatory in 1933, when it was identified as 1933 UV, extending the asteroid's observation arc by 35 years prior to its official discovery observation.
In May 2008, a rotational light-curve of Zoya was obtained from photometric observations taken by astronomer James Brinsfield, giving a rotation period of 5.753 hours with a brightness variation of 0.40 magnitude (U=2+), superseding a previous period of 7.0 hours obtained by Claes-Ingvar Lagerkvist in 1978 (U=2). Modeled light-curves published in 2016, gave a period of 5.751872 and 5.75187, respectively (U=n.a.).
According to the survey carried out by NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer with its subsequent NEOWISE mission, Zoya measures 8.35 kilometers in diameter, and its surface has an albedo of 0.334, while the Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link assumes an albedo of 0.24 – derived from 8 Flora, the largest member and namesake of this asteroid family – and calculates a diameter of 9.41 kilometers, based on an absolute magnitude of 12.3.
This minor planet was named in memory of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya (1923–1941), Hero of the Soviet Union, partisan who died at the age of 18 during World War II in the Great Patriotic War. The minor planets 2072 Kosmodemyanskaya and 1977 Shura were named in honour of her mother and brother. Naming citation was published before November 1977 (M.P.C. 3297).