Discovered by T. Smirnova MPC designation 1902 Shaposhnikov Inclination 12.496° Orbits Sun Asteroid group Asteroid belt | Discovery date 18 April 1972 Discovered 18 April 1972 Argument of perihelion 268.28° | |
Named after Vladimir Shaposhnikov(astronomer) Alternative names 1972 HU · 1940 GK1941 MC · 1950 TD41951 WY1 · 1951 YD1958 TP1 · 1958 VB1959 XA · 1972 JA Minor planet category main-belt (outer) · Hilda Discovery site | ||
1902 Shaposhnikov, provisional designation 1972 HU, is a very dark asteroid from the outer asteroid belt, almost 100 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on April 18, 1972, by Russian astronomer Tamara Smirnova at Nauchnyj in Crimea. It orbits the Sun at a distance of 3.1–4.8 AU once every 7.9 years (2,884 days) and has a rotation period of 21.2 hours. Shaposhnikov is a X-type asteroid with a very low geometric albedo of 0.03, as measured by NEOWISE in 2010 and 2011.
With a diameter of 7001969000000000000♠96.9±3.2 kilometers, it is the most recent discovered outer main-belt asteroid that is in the 100-kilometer diameter range. The next larger asteroid, 1390 Abastumani, with a diameter of roughly 102 kilometers was already discovered in the 1930s, four decades earlier. Besides being an outer main-belt asteroid, Shaposhnikov is also classified as a Hildian asteroid.
It was named in honour of Vladimir Grigorevich Shaposhnikov (1905–1942), who worked at the Simeiz Observatory and was an expert in astrometry, before he perished at the Eastern Front of the Second World War.