Discovery date 24 September 1960 Minor planet category main-belt · Vestian Orbits Sun | MPC designation 1979 Sakharov Discovered 24 September 1960 Asteroid group Asteroid belt | |
Discovered by C. J. van HoutenI. van Houten-G.T. Gehrels Alternative names 2006 P-L · 1971 SQ31982 SZ12 People also search for Sun, 9511 Klingsor, 11767 Milne | ||
1979 Sakharov, provisionally designated 2006 P-L, is a stony Vestian asteroid from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 4.5 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 24 September 1960, by the Dutch astronomers Ingrid and Cornelis van Houten, on photographic plates taken by Dutch–American astronomer Tom Gehrels at the U.S. Palomar Observatory in California.
The S-type asteroid, also classified as a Q-V-type by PanSTARRS large-scale survey, is a member of the Vesta family, which is named after the main-belt's second-largest body, 4 Vesta. It orbits the Sun at a distance of 2.1–2.6 AU once every 3 years and 8 months (1,337 days). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.10 and an inclination of 6° with respect to the ecliptic. As no precoveries were taken, the asteroid's observation arc begins with its discovery observation in September 1960.
In 2011 and 2013, a total of four well-defined rotational light-curves were obtained for this asteroid by astronomers Julian Oey at the Australian Kingsgrove and Leura/ Blue Mountains Observatory (E19 and E17/Q68) and by Petr Pravec at the Czech Ondřejov Observatory. The light-curve gave a rotation period of 7.520 to 7.589 hours with a brightness variation between 0.12 and 0.22 in magnitude (U=3/3-/3-/3).
According to the original data from the NEOWISE mission of NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, the asteroid measures 4.8 kilometers in diameter and its surface has an albedo of 0.31, while the Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link agrees with the revised NEOWISE data which gave an albedo of 0.26 and a diameter of 4.5 kilometers, based on an absolute magnitude of 13.8.
The survey 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 Ingrid and Cornelis van Houten at Leiden Observatory where astrometry was carried out. The trio are credited with the discovery of several thousand minor planets.
This minor planet was named in honour of renowned Russian mathematician and physicist Andrei Sakharov (1921–1989), who received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1975. Naming citation was published on 1 August 1981 (M.P.C. 6207).