Discovery date 20 March 1955 Minor planet category main-belt · Vestian Absolute magnitude 12.1 Asteroid family Vesta family | MPC designation 1989 Tatry Discovered 20 March 1955 Orbits Sun Asteroid group Asteroid belt | |
Discovered by A. Paroubek
R. Podstanicka Named after High Tatra Mountains
(in northern Slovakia) Alternative names 1955 FG · 1935 UQ
1944 DL · 1955 DY
1964 WK · 1968 YC
1971 SJ2 Discovery site Skalnaté pleso Observatory People also search for Sun, 3850 Peltier, 1800 Aguilar | ||
1989 Tatry, provisional designation 1955 FG, is a carbonaceous Vestian asteroid and relatively slow rotator from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 16 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 20 March 1955, by the Slovakian astronomers Alois Paroubek and Regina Podstanická at Skalnate Pleso Observatory, Slovakia. It was their only minor planet discovery.
Based on its orbital elements, the asteroid is a member of the Vesta family and classified as a carbonaceous C-type asteroid in the SMASS taxonomy. It orbits the Sun at a distance of 2.2–2.5 AU once every 3 years and 7 months (1,317 days). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.08 and an inclination of 8° with respect to the ecliptic. It was first identified as "1935 UQ" at the South African Union Observatory in 1935, extending the asteroid's observation arc by 20 years prior to its official discovery.
According to the surveys carried out by the Japanese Akari satellite, and NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer with its subsequent NEOWISE mission, the asteroid measures between 8.99 and 9.87 kilometers in diameter and its surface has an albedo between 0.175 and 0.262. The Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link assumes a standard albedo for carbonaceous asteroids of 0.057 and calculates a much larger diameter of 16.8 kilometers, as the lower the albedo (reflectivity), the higher the diameter at a constant absolute magnitude (brightness).
Photometric measurements of the asteroid made in January 2005, by astronomer Brian D. Warner at his Palmer Divide Observatory, Colorado, gave a light-curve with a period of 7001399000000000000♠39.9±0.1 hours and a brightness variation of below 6999220000000000000♠0.22±0.02 in magnitude. However, the data was incomplete, so the period is considered suspect (U=2-). Further measurements made in October 2007, by Adrián Galád, Leonard Kornoš and Štefan Gajdoš at Modra Observatory in Slovakia, showed a much longer period of 7002131300000000000♠131.3±0.2 hours with a brightness variation of 0.5 in magnitude (U=2). In March 2009, a fragmentary light-curve obtained by French amateur astronomer Pierre Antonini gave a period of 24 hours (U=1).
The minor planet is named after the location of the discovering observatory, High Tatras (Czech: Vysoké Tatry), the highest mountain range in northern Slovakia. Naming citation was published on 1 February 1980 (M.P.C. 5183).