Discovered by M. Itzigsohn MPC designation 1800 Aguilar Discovered 12 September 1950 Asteroid group Asteroid belt | Discovery date 12 September 1950 Minor planet category main-belt · Vestian Orbits Sun | |
Named after Félix Aguilar (astronomer) Alternative names 1950 RJ · 1952 BJ1972 XP2 · 1976 YU71977 AE1 Similar 276 Adelheid, 132 Aethra, 193 Ambrosia, 847 Agnia, 516 Amherstia | ||
1800 Aguilar, provisional designation 1950 RJ, is a stony Vestian asteroid from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 8 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 12 September 1950, by Argentine astronomer Miguel Itzigsohn at La Plata Astronomical Observatory in Argentina.
The stony S-type asteroid is a member of the Vesta family. It orbits the Sun at a distance of 2.0–2.7 AU once every 3 years and 7 months (1,321 days). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.14 and an inclination of 6° with respect to the ecliptic. As no precoveries were taken, and no prior identifications were made, Aguilar's observation arc begins with its official discovery observation.
In September 2008, a rotational light-curve of Aguilar was obtained from photometric observations taken by Australian amateur astronomer David Higgins. It gave a well-defined rotation period of 2.478 hours with a brightness variation of 0.11 in magnitude (U=3).
According to the survey carried out by NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer with its subsequent NEOWISE mission, Aguilar measures 7.38 kilometers in diameter, and its surface has an albedo of 0.295, while the Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link assumes a standard albedo for stony asteroids of 0.20 and calculates a diameter of 8.18 kilometers based on an absolute magnitude of 12.8.
This minor planet was named for Argentine astronomer Félix Aguilar (1884–1943), former director of the discovering observatory and founder of the University School of Astronomy and Geophysics. He contributed significantly to the development of Argentine astronomy in the first half of the 20th century (also see Félix Aguilar Observatory). Naming citation was published before November 1977 (M.P.C. 3934).