Discovery date 4 October 1961 Alternative names 1961 TE · 1939 RN Discovered 4 October 1961 Asteroid family Adeona family Asteroid group Asteroid belt | MPC designation 1994 Shane Minor planet category main-belt · (middle) Orbits Sun Discovery site Goethe Link Observatory Discoverer Indiana Asteroid Program | |
Discovered by Indiana University
(Indiana Asteroid Program) Named after C. Donald Shane
(astronomer) People also search for Sun, 1284 Latvia, 1936 Lugano, 145 Adeona, 1238 Predappia, 1384 Kniertje, 166 Rhodope, 997 Priska | ||
1994 Shane, provisional designation 1961 TE, is a dark asteroid from the middle region of the asteroid belt, approximately 25 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 4 October 1961, by the Indiana Asteroid Program at Goethe Link Observatory near Brooklyn, Indiana, United States.
The asteroid orbits the Sun at a distance of 2.1–3.2 AU once every 4 years and 5 months (1,605 days). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.21 and an inclination of 10° with respect to the ecliptic. It was first identified as 1939 RN at Simeiz Observatory in 1939, extending Shane's observation arc by 22 years prior to its official discovery observation.
In October 2009, a rotational light-curve for Shane was obtained from photometric observations at the Via Capote Observatory in California. It gave a well-defined rotation period of 8.22 hours with a brightness variation of 0.26 magnitude (U=3), superseding a previously obtained period of 8 hours from 1996 (U=n.a.).
According to observations made by the Infrared Astronomical Satellite IRAS, Shane has an albedo of 0.06, while the survey carried out by the Japanese Akari satellite rendered a higher albedo of 0.13 with a corresponding diameter of 18 kilometers. The Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link derives an even lower albedo of 0.04, yet does not classify it as a carbonaceous but rather as a S-type asteroid, which typically have much higher albedos due to their stony surface composition.
It was named after American astronomer Charles Donald Shane (1895–1983), director of Lick Observatory, second president of AURA, and instrumental for the establishment of the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile. He played a major role in the planning and construction of the first telescopes and buildings on Kitt Peak National Observatory as well. Naming citation was published on 1 March 1981 (M.P.C. 5848).