Discovered by Y. Väisälä Discovered 26 April 1941 Discoverer Yrjö Väisälä Discovery site Iso-Heikkilä Observatory | Discovery date 26 April 1941 Orbits Sun Asteroid group Asteroid belt | |
Alternative names 1941 HO · 1931 MG1938 UF1 · 1951 GA11952 LB · 1956 EP1971 BH1 · 1978 NBA924 BB Similar 2100 Ra‑Shalom, 2101 Adonis, Sun | ||
2091 Sampo, provisional designation 1941 HO, is a stony Eos asteroid and relatively slow rotator from the outer region of the asteroid belt, approximately 30 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 26 April 1941, by Finnish astronomer Yrjö Väisälä at Turku Observatory, Finland.
The asteroid is a member of the Eos family, a group of asteroids thought to have formed by a single collision that disrupted their 240-kilometer sized parent body some 1.1 billion years ago. It orbits the Sun at a distance of 2.8–3.2 AU once every 5 years and 3 months (1,912 days). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.06 and an inclination of 11° with respect to the ecliptic. The S-type asteroid measures between 23.0 and 35.5 kilometers in diameter, and its surface has an albedo between 0.118 and 0.277, according to the surveys carried out by IRAS, Akari, and NEOWISE.
A rotational light-curve was obtained from photometric observations made by astronomers René Roy, Laurent Bernasconi and Stéphane Charbonnelat in March 2003. It gave a potentially long rotation period of 7001713400000000000♠71.34±0.05 hours with a brightness variation of 0.38 magnitude (U=2).
It was named after the wonder-object Sampo from Finnish mythology. It is mentioned in the national oral folklore and mythology epic, Kalevala, after which the minor planet 1454 Kalevala is named. Sampo was to produce every kind of fortune. When Kalevala and Pohjola (also see 3606 Pohjola) were fighting for its possession it broke into pieces. Naming citation was published on 1 August 1980 (M.P.C. 5450).