Discovery date 28 September 1952 Minor planet category main-belt · Flora Aphelion 2.38 m Asteroid family Flora family Discoverer Indiana Asteroid Program | MPC designation 1988 Delores Discovered 28 September 1952 Orbits Sun Discovery site Goethe Link Observatory | |
Discovered by Indiana University
(Indiana Asteroid Program) Named after Delores Owings
(Indiana University) Alternative names 1952 SV · 1951 GF1
1952 UU · 1971 UE
1973 GH Similar Sun, Asteroid belt, 8 Flora | ||
1988 Delores, provisional designation 1952 SV, is a stony Florian asteroid from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 5 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 28 September 1952, by IU's Indiana Asteroid Program at the Goethe Link Observatory near Brooklyn, Indiana, United States.
The S-type asteroid is a member of the Flora family, one of the largest groups of stony asteroids in the main-belt. It orbits the Sun at a distance of 1.9–2.4 AU once every 3 years and 2 months (1,154 days). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.10 and an inclination of 4° with respect to the ecliptic. It was first observed as 1951 GF1 at the McDonald Observatory in April 1951, yet the astrometric data from this observation remained unused to extend the body's observation arc prior to its official discovery.
A rotational light-curve for this asteroid was obtained at the Palomar Transient Factory in October 2012. It gave a rotation period of 88 hours and a brightness variation of 0.74 magnitude (U=2). While not being a slow rotator, a period of 88 hours is significantly above average as most minor planets rotate once every 2–20 hours around their axis. It has also a high brightness amplitude, which typically indicates that the body has a non-spheroidal shape.
According to the survey carried out by NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer with its subsequent NEOWISE mission, the asteroid measures 5.8 kilometers in diameter and its surface has an albedo of 0.19, while the Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link assumes an albedo of 0.24 — derived from 8 Flora, the family's largest member and namesake – and calculates a diameter of 4.6 kilometers, based on an absolute magnitude of 13.85.
This minor planet was named after Delores Owings, member in the Indiana Asteroid Program of Indiana University, collaborator with Tom Gehrels on the determination of absolute magnitudes of minor planets, who became the program's supervisor of astrometric measurements on photographic plates. The naming was suggested by the Director of the Minor Planet Center, Paul Herget. Naming citation was published before November 1977 (M.P.C. 4190).