Discovery date 24 September 1960 Minor planet category main-belt Discovered 24 September 1960 Named after Horus Asteroid group Asteroid belt | MPC designation 1924 Horus Observation arc 55.45 yr (20253 days) Orbits Sun Discovery site Palomar Observatory | |
Discovered by Palomar–Leiden survey
C. J. van Houten, I. van Houten-Groeneveld and Tom Gehrels Alternative names 4023 P–L · 1951 BD
1969 BA Discoverers Tom Gehrels, Cornelis Johannes van Houten, Ingrid van Houten-Groeneveld Similar Sun, 5381 Sekhmet, Asteroid belt | ||
1924 Horus, also designated 4023 P–L, is a main-belt asteroid discovered on September 24, 1960, by Cornelis Johannes van Houten and Ingrid van Houten-Groeneveld at Leiden, on photographic plates taken by Tom Gehrels at Palomar. On the same date, the trio of astronomers also discovered 1912 Anubis, 1923 Osiris and 5011 Ptah.
Horus measures about 12 kilometers in diameter.
The designation P–L stands for Palomar–Leiden, named after Palomar Observatory and Leiden Observatory, which collaborated on the fruitful Palomar–Leiden survey in the 1960s. Gehrels used Palomar's Samuel Oschin telescope (also known as the 48-inch Schmidt Telescope), and shipped the photographic plates to Cornelis Johannes van Houten and Ingrid van Houten-Groeneveld at Leiden Observatory. The trio are credited with several thousand asteroid discoveries.
It is named after Horus, the falcon-headed king of the sky and the stars, and son of the Egyptian god Osiris.