Discovered by P. F. Shajn MPC designation 1954 Kukarkin Minor planet category main-belt · (outer) Absolute magnitude 11.3 Asteroid group Asteroid belt | Discovery date 15 August 1952 Alternative names 1952 PH · 1957 QB Discovered 15 August 1952 Orbits Sun | |
Named after Boris Kukarkin (astronomer) People also search for Sun, 1654 Bojeva, 3958 Komendantov | ||
1954 Kukarkin, provisional designation 1952 PH, is an eccentric, carbonaceous asteroid and slow rotator from the outer regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 30 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 15 August 1952, by Russian astronomer Pelageya Shajn at Simeiz Observatory on the Crimean peninsula.
The eccentric asteroid orbits the Sun at a distance of 2.0–3.9 AU once every 5.03 years (1,838 days). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.31 and an inclination of 15° with respect to the ecliptic. No precoveries were taken prior to its discovery.
The asteroid is a slow rotator, with a long period of 7002136400000000000♠136.40±0.03 hours, measured at Los Algarrobos Observatory, Uruguay (I38) during a favorable opposition in 2012. The well-defined rotational light-curve had brightness variation of 6999800000000000000♠0.8±0.05 in magnitude (U=3-).
While observations taken by NEOWISE gave an albedo of 6999260799999999999♠0.2608±0.0155 and a diameter of 7001136590000000000♠13.659±0.309 kilometers, the Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link assumes a standard albedo for a carbonaceous C-type asteroid of 0.057 and calculates a significantly larger diameter of 30.6 kilometers, as the lower the albedo, the larger the body's diameter at a constant absolute magnitude.
The asteroid is named after stellar astronomer Boris Vasilyevich Kukarkin (1909–1977), a well-known specialist for variable stars, the structure of stellar systems, and professor at Moscow State University. Kukarkin started and edited the General Catalogue of Variable Stars that was first published in 1948. He also served as vice-president of the Astronomical Council of Academy of Sciences of the USSR as well as of the International Astronomical Union and was the president of its Commission 27. Naming citation was published on 1 June 1980 (M.P.C. 5358).