Discovered by L. Chernykh MPC designation 1855 Korolev Minor planet category main-belt · Flora Orbits Sun Asteroid family Flora family | Discovery date 8 October 1969 Named after Sergey Korolyov () Discovered 8 October 1969 Discoverer Lyudmila Chernykh Asteroid group Asteroid belt | |
Alternative names 1969 TU1 · 1961 JD
1964 DD Discovery site Crimean Astrophysical Observatory Similar 218 Bianca, 45 Eugenia, 216 Kleopatra, Sun, 8 Flora | ||
1855 Korolev, provisional designation 1969 TU1, is a stony Flora asteroid from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 7 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered by Russian astronomer Lyudmila Chernykh at the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory in Nauchnyj on 8 October 1969. On the same night, she also discovered 1856 Růžena.
The S-type asteroid orbits the Sun at a distance of 2.1–2.4 AU once every 3 years and 4 months (1,231 days). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.08 and an inclination of 3° with respect to the ecliptic. Korolev was first identified as 1961 JD at Goethe Link Observatory in 1961, extending the body's observation arc by 8 years prior to its official discovery observation.
According to the surveys carried out by NASA's space-based Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer with its subsequent NEOWISE mission, Korolev measures 6.79 kilometers in diameter, and its surface has a high albedo of 0.319, while the Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link assumes an albedo for of 0.24 – derived from 8 Flora, the largest member and namesake of its orbital family – and calculates a diameter of 7.47 kilometers based on an absolute magnitude of 12.8.
In March 2008, three rotational light-curves of Korolev were obtained from photometric observation made by astronomers James W. Brinsfield, Petr Pravec and René Roy, giving a well-defined rotation period of 4.65–4.66 hours with a brightness variation 0.75 and 0.76 magnitude, respectively (U=3/2/3). Another concurring light-curve was published in March 2016, using sparse-in-time photometry data from the Lowell Photometric Database (U=n.a.).
This minor planet was named in honor of Sergei Korolev (1907–1966), an outstanding designer, integrator, organizer and strategic planner. He was the lead Soviet rocket engineer and spacecraft designer in the Space Race between the United States and the Soviet Union during the 1950s and 1960s until his early death. The lunar and Martian craters Korolev are also named in his honour. Naming citation was published before November 1977 (M.P.C. 3825).