MPC designation 1940 Whipple Discovered 2 February 1975 Orbits Sun Asteroid group Asteroid belt | Discovery date 2 February 1975 Minor planet category main-belt · (outer) Absolute magnitude 11 Discovery site Oak Ridge Observatory | |
Alternative names 1975 CA · 1932 AD1950 LH · 1962 SH1970 EC1 · 1971 KD11971 KN · A916 AD People also search for Sun, 2133 Franceswright | ||
1940 Whipple, provisional designation 1975 CA, is a carbonaceous asteroid from the outer region of the asteroid belt, approximately 35 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 2 February 1975, by the Harvard College Observatory at its George R. Agassiz Station near Harvard, Massachusetts, United States.
The C-type asteroid orbits the Sun at a distance of 2.9–3.3 AU once every 5 years and 4 months (1,956 days). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.06 and an inclination of 7° with respect to the ecliptic. The first used observation was made at Goethe Link Observatory in 1962, extending the asteroid's observation arc by 13 years prior to its discovery observation.
According to the surveys carried out by the Infrared Astronomical Satellite IRAS, the Japanese Akari satellite, and NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer with its subsequent NEOWISE mission, the asteroid measures between 32.6 and 40.4 kilometers in diameter and its surface has a low albedo between 0.04 and 0.06. The Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link derives an albedo of 0.056 and a diameter of 33.8 kilometers.
In December 2011, a rotational light-curve was obtained for this asteroid from photometric observations by American astronomer Russel Durkee at the Shed of Science Observatory (H39). It gave a well-defined rotation period of 7000695300000000000♠6.953±0.003 hours with a brightness variation of 0.25 magnitude (U=3), superseding a period of 7000578000000000000♠5.78±0.03 hours previously obtained by French astronomer René Roy in 2005 (U=2).
The minor planet was named after American astronomer Fred Lawrence Whipple (1906–2004), author of the icy conglomerate model, also known as the dirty snowball hypothesis. He worked at the Harvard College Observatory for over 70 years and was the director of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory where he developed new methods imaging meteors. He was also president of several commissions at the International Astronomical Union and on NASA's panel for missions to small Solar System bodies. Naming citation was published before November 1977 (M.P.C. 3828).