Discovered by LINEAR MPC designation 18880 Toddblumberg Minor planet category main-belt (outer) Absolute magnitude 14.1 Discovery site Experimental Test Site | Discovery date 10 December 1999 Alternative names 1999 XM166 · 1976 UC20 Discovered 10 December 1999 Orbits Sun Asteroid group Asteroid belt | |
Named after Todd James Blumberg
(ISEF awardee) Discoverer Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research | ||
18880 Toddblumberg, provisional designation 1999 XM166, is an asteroid from the outer region of the asteroid belt, approximately 4 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 10 December 1999, by LINEAR at Lincoln Laboratory's Experimental Test Site, near Socorro, New Mexico.
The asteroid orbits the Sun at a distance of 2.6–3.8 AU once every 5 years and 9 months (2,096 days). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.18 and an inclination of 10° with respect to the ecliptic. The first precovery was taken at Palomar Observatory (DSS) in 1953, extending the asteroid's observation arc by 46 years prior to its discovery.
Although discovered by LINEAR, 18880 Toddblumberg is not a near-Earth asteroid. Its closest approach to the Sun (perihelion) is about double the maximum distance of 1.3 AU that qualifies an asteroid as "near-Earth". According to the survey carried out by NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer with its subsequent NEOWISE mission, Toddblumberg measures 4.3 kilometers in diameter and its surface has an albedo of 0.265. As of 2016, the bodyŝ spectral type as well as its rotation period remain unknown.
This minor planet was named for Todd James Blumberg (b. 1984), a student at the Plano Senior High School in Plano, Texas, who won the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) award for his microbiology project in 2003. Since 2001, hundreds of secondary school students who have won awards at science fairs have had asteroids named after them. Naming citation was published on 30 August 2004 (M.P.C. 52648).