Discovered by P. Wild Discovered 5 March 1973 Orbits Sun | Discovery date 5 March 1973 Minor planet category main-belt · (inner) Absolute magnitude 12.9 Asteroid group Asteroid belt | |
Alternative names 1973 EE · 1941 SQ1958 XT · 1978 VT13 Similar Sun, 3552 Don Quixote, 81P/Wild | ||
2034 Bernoulli, provisional designation 1973 EE, is a stony asteroid from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 9 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 5 March 1973, by Swiss astronomer Paul Wild at Zimmerwald Observatory near Bern, Switzerland.
The S-type asteroid orbits the Sun at a distance of 1.8–2.7 AU once every 3 years and 4 months (1,230 days). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.18 and an inclination of 9° with respect to the ecliptic. The first used precovery was taken at Palomar Observatory in 1951, extending the asteroid's observation arc by 22 years prior to its discovery, while the first unused observation took place ten years earlier at Uccle Observatory in 1941.
A rotational light-curve of this asteroid was obtained from photometric observations by Michael Alkema at the U.S. Elephant Head Observatory (G35), Arizona, in December 2012. The light-curve gave a rotation period of 7000624800000000000♠6.248±0.001 hours with a brightness amplitude of 0.21 in magnitude (U=2+).
According to the survey carried out by the NEOWISE mission of NASA's space-based Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, the asteroid measures 7.8 and 8.5 kilometers in diameter and its surface has an albedo of 0.17 and 0.22, respectively, while the Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link assumes a standard albedo for stony asteroids of 0.20 and calculates a diameter of 9.4 kilometers.
The minor planet was named in honour of the Bernoulli family, a dynasty of mathematicians from the city of Basel, Switzerland. In particular, Jacob Bernoulli (1654–1705), founder of the calculus of variations, Daniel Bernoulli (1700–1782), co-founder of hydrodynamics, and Johann Bernoulli (1667–1748), contributor to integral calculus and the teacher of Leonhard Euler, after whom the minor planet 2002 Euler is named. The lunar crater Bernoulli also honors the Swiss dynasty. Naming citation was published on 1 June 1980 (M.P.C. 5359).