1859 Kovalevskaya

1859 Kovalevskaya, provisional designation 1972 RS₂, is a carbonaceous asteroid from the outer regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 40 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 4 September 1972, by Russian–Ukrainian astronomer Lyudmila Zhuravleva at the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory in Nauchnyj, on the Crimean peninsula.

The dark C-type asteroid orbits the Sun at a distance of 2.9–3.5 AU once every 5 years and 9 months (2,101 days). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.10 and an inclination of 8° with respect to the ecliptic. The first precovery was taken at Heidelberg Observatory in 1915, extending the asteroid's observation arc by 57 years prior to its discovery.

In September 2013, photometric measurements at the U.S. Palomar Transient Factory, California, rendered a rotational light-curve with a period of 7001111084000000000♠11.1084±0.0066 hours and a brightness variation of 0.13 in magnitude (U=2). According to the surveys carried out by the Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS) and the NEOWISE mission of NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, the asteroid measures between 44.6 and 48.8 kilometers in diameter, and its surface has a low albedo between 0.043 and 0.069. The Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link assumes a standard albedo for carbonaceous asteroids of 0.057 and calculates a smaller diameter of 34.4 kilometers, based on a weaker absolute magnitude of 11.05.

The asteroid was named after the first major Russian female mathematician, Sofia Kovalevskaya (1850–1891), who has made important contributions to partial differential equations and rigid body motion (also see Kovalevskaya top). The lunar carter Kovalevskaya is also named after her. Naming citation was published before November 1977 (M.P.C. 3826). From 1972 to 1992, the discoverer of this asteroid, Lyudmila Zhuravleva, has made more than 200 minor planets discoveries, and ranks 61st on the Minor Planet Center discoverer chart.