Discovered by K. Reinmuth MPC designation 1849 Kresák Discovered 14 January 1942 Orbits Sun Asteroid group Asteroid belt | Discovery date 14 January 1942 Minor planet category main-belt · (outer) Absolute magnitude 11.5 Discoverer Karl Wilhelm Reinmuth | |
Named after Ľubor Kresák(astronomer) Alternative names 1942 AB · 1948 EO1951 WC2 Discovery site Landessternwarte Heidelberg-Königstuhl Similar 1862 Apollo, Sun, 1419 Danzig, 1056 Azalea, 1111 Reinmuthia | ||
1849 Kresák, provisional designation 1942 AB, is a carbonaceous asteroid from the outer region of the asteroid belt, approximately 24 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered by German astronomer Karl Reinmuth at Heidelberg Observatory in the middle of World War II on 14 January 1942.
Kresák is a C-type asteroid. It orbits the Sun at a distance of 3.0–3.1 AU once every 5 years and 4 months (1,948 days). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.02 and an inclination of 11° with respect to the ecliptic. The Kresák's observation arc begins 6 days after its official discovery observation.
In January 2012, a rotational light-curve was obtained from photometric observations at the Palomar Transient Factory in California. In the R-band, it gave a rotation period of 19.10 hours with a brightness variation of 0.19 magnitude (U=2).
According to the survey carried out by NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer with its subsequent NEOWISE mission, Kresák measures 21.7 kilometers in diameter, and its surface has an albedo of 0.114, while the Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link assumes a standard albedo for carbonaceous asteroids of 0.057 and calculates a diameter of 26.1 kilometers based on an absolute magnitude of 11.64.
This minor planet was named in honor of Slovak astronomer Ľubor Kresák (1927–1994) from the Slovak Academy of Sciences in Bratislava and president of IAU's Commission 20 in the 1970s. He is well known for his theoretical work on meteors and the question of their relationship with comets and minor planets, as well as for the rediscovery of the short-period comet 41P/Tuttle–Giacobini–Kresák at the Skalnaté Pleso Observatory in 1951. Naming citation was published before November 1977 (M.P.C. 3935).