Discovered by L. Zhuravleva MPC designation 1858 Lobachevskij Observation arc 79.05 yr (28873 days) Orbits Sun | Discovery date 18 August 1972 Minor planet category main-belt (middle) Discovered 18 August 1972 Spectral type B-type asteroid | |
Alternative names 1972 QL · 1928 SG1936 MH · 1955 VW1957 BM · 1964 YC Similar 216 Kleopatra, 45 Eugenia, Sun | ||
1858 Lobachevskij, sometimes 1858 Lobachevsk, provisionally designated 1972 QL, is an asteroid in the middle region of the main-belt, calculated to be about 13 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on August 18, 1972, by Lyudmila Zhuravleva at Crimean Astrophysical Observatory in Nauchnyj. The strongly reddish and relatively uncommon L-type asteroid had already been photographed in precovery images dating back to the 1930s, providing it with a much larger observation arc. It orbits the Sun at a distance of 2.5–2.9 AU once every 4 years and 5 months (1,619 days). The orbit is only slightly eccentric and nearly coplanar to the plane of the ecliptic.
It has its rotation period determined to be about five and a half hours. A previous photographic survey in a May 2002 by U.S. astronomers found the rotation period of this particular to be 7000700000000000000♠7.00±0.01 hours, with an amplitude of 0.6 mag. Its absolute magnitude was determined to be 11.5.
The asteroid covered a 10.4 mag star—a phenomenon known as occultation—in the constellation Sagittarius in June 2007. It was predicted that the event could be seen in the northeastern United States and southeast Canada. The combined light magnitude of the bodies would drop momentarily—for a maximum of 2.2 seconds.
Lyudmila Zhuravleva has discovery 200 minor planets, 13 of which were co-discoveries, between 1972 and 1992. She is ranked 61 on the MPC's all-time discoverer list.
The asteroid was named in honor of mathematician Nikolaj Ivanovich Lobachevskij (1792–1856), Russian mathematician, the creator of the first comprehensive system of non-Euclidian geometry.