Discovery date 22 September 1963 Orbits Sun | Discovered 22 September 1963 Asteroid group Asteroid belt | |
Named after Robert McMath(astronomer, engineer) Alternative names 1963 SR · 1936 BA1949 XN · 1951 EP21953 RN · 1963 TK Similar Sun, 208 Lacrimosa, 277 Elvira, 9916 Kibirev, 532 Herculina | ||
1955 McMath, provisional designation 1963 SR, is a stony Koronis asteroid from the outer region of the asteroid belt, approximately 10 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 22 September 1963, by Indiana University's Indiana Asteroid Program at its Goethe Link Observatory near Brooklyn, Indiana, United States.
The bright S-type asteroid is a member of the Koronis family, which is named after 158 Koronis and consists of about 300 known bodies. It orbits the Sun at a distance of 2.7–3.0 AU once every 4 years and 10 months (1,762 days). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.06 and an inclination of 1° with respect to the ecliptic. The first precovery was taken at Goethe Link Observatory in 1949, extending the asteroid's observation arc by 15 years prior to its discovery. The first (unused) observation at Uccle Observatory dates back to 1936.
It has a well determined rotation period of 7000557400000000000♠5.574±0.002 hours with a brightness amplitude of 0.30 in magnitude (U=3). Between 2011 and 2013, three additional light-curves with concurring periods were obtained through photometric observations at the U.S. Palomar Transient Factory in California.
According to the survey carried out by the NEOWISE mission of NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, the asteroid measures 9.8 kilometers in diameter and its surface has a high albedo of 0.32, while the Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link assumes an albedo of 0.24 and calculates a diameter of 10.3 kilometers.
It was named after American solar astronomer Robert Raynolds McMath (1891–1962), who was also a bridge engineer and businessman. He was a co-donor and the director of the McMath-Hulbert Observatory in Lake Angelus, Michigan, which was deeded to the University of Michigan. Under his advice, the NSF chose the site at Kitt Peak National Observatory for the McMath-Pierce Solar Telescope. From the late 1950s, Robert McMath served as the first president of Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy and thereafter as its chairman. The lunar crater McMath is also named in his and his father's honour. Naming citation was published on 1 March 1981 (M.P.C. 5848).