Discovered by T. Smirnova MPC designation 1904 Massevitch Discovered 9 May 1972 Orbits Sun Asteroid group Asteroid belt | Discovery date 9 May 1972 Minor planet category main-belt · (middle) Absolute magnitude 11.3 | |
Named after Alla Massevitch (astronomer) Alternative names 1972 JM · 1949 JH1951 XN · 1958 JA1962 CE · 1965 YH1971 BF Discovery site | ||
1904 Massevitch, provisionally designated 1972 JM, is a rare-type asteroid from the middle region of the asteroid belt, approximately 16 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 9 May 1972, by the Russian astronomer Tamara Smirnova at the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory in Nauchnyj, on the Crimean peninsula.
Massevitch orbits the Sun at a distance of 2.5–2.9 AU once every 4 years and 7 months (1,662 days). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.07 and an inclination of 13° with respect to the ecliptic. It was first identified as 1949 JH at Goethe Link Observatory in 1949, extending the body's observation arc by 23 years prior to its discovery observation.
The moderately bright R-type asteroid has a surface that strongly absorbs in the olivine and pyroxene spectral region, which give it its very reddish color.
According to the surveys carried out by NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer with its subsequent NEOWISE mission and the Infrared Astronomical Satellite IRAS, Massevitch measures 13.50 and 18.19 kilometers in diameter, and its surface has an albedo of 0.161 and 0.581, respectively, while the Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link derives an albedo of 0.176 and a diameter of 18.25 kilometers based on an absolute magnitude of 11.2.
In September 2014, a rotational light-curve of Massevitch was obtained from photometric observations taken at Oakley Southern Sky Observatory in Coonabarabran, Australia. It gave a rotation period of 7000539400000000000♠5.394 hours with a brightness varitaion of 0.30 magnitude (U=3-)
It is named after Alla Massevitch, an astronomer-astrophysicist, vice-president of the Astronomical Council of the former USSR Academy of Sciences (now Russian Academy of Sciences), the organizer of optical tracking of artificial Earth satellites in the former USSR. Naming citation was published before November 1977 (M.P.C. 3936).