Discovery date 16 October 1963 Alternative names 1963 UA Observation arc 52.48 yr (19169 days) Inclination 11.031° | MPC designation 2059 Baboquivari Minor planet category Amor, NEO Discovered 16 October 1963 Orbits Sun | |
Named after Baboquivari Peak Wilderness | ||
2059 Baboquivari, provisional designation 1963 UA, is an Amor asteroid, a type of Near-Earth asteroid (NEA). It is one of the lowest numbered NEAs as it was already discovered on October 16, 1963 at Goethe Link Observatory near Brooklyn, Indiana, United States by the Indiana Asteroid Program. It became a lost asteroid until 1976 when it was recovered by the Steward Observatory's 90-inch Bok Telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory located in the Sonoran Desert of the U.S. state of Arizona.
The very eccentric asteroid orbits the Sun at a distance of 1.25–4.05 AU once every 4.31 years (1,573 days). Its orbit is inclined by 11 degrees to the ecliptic. The asteroid's Earth minimum orbit intersection distance (MOID) is 0.25 AU. It approached the Earth at that distance on October 20, 1963. Its closest approach to Jupiter was on April 20, 1970 at a distance of about 1.4 AU.
The asteroid was named after the main-peak of the Baboquivari Mountains, a sacred location in the mythology of the Papago Indian Tribe. The Observatories of the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) are located on the Baboquivari land, just a few kilometers south of Kitt Peak.