Discovered by LONEOS MPC designation 21501 Acevedo Discovered 23 May 1998 Asteroid group Asteroid belt | Discovery date 23 May 1998 Orbits Sun | |
Named after Tony Acevedo(Arecibo staff member) Alternative names 1998 KC8 · 1978 WY191998 HV149 Discoverer Lowell Observatory Near-Earth-Object Search People also search for Sun, 8 Flora, 915 Cosette, 967 Helionape, 3412 Kafka, 428 Monachia | ||
21501 Acevedo, provisional designation 1998 KC8, is a stony Flora asteroid from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 2.4 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 23 May 1998, by the U.S. Lowell Observatory Near-Earth Object Search (LONEOS) team at Anderson Mesa Station, Arizona.
The S-type asteroid is a member of the Flora family, one of the largest groups of stony asteroids in the main-belt. It orbits the Sun at a distance of 2.1–2.5 AU once every 3 years and 6 months (1,286 days). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.07 and an inclination of 6° with respect to the ecliptic. The first precovery was taken at Palomar Observatory in 1978, extending the asteroid's observation arc by 20 years prior to its discovery.
A fragmentary rotational light-curve of this asteroid was obtained from photometric observations made at the U.S. Palomar Transient Factory in August 2013. The light-curve gave a provisional rotation period of 7000656890000000000♠6.5689±0.0050 hours with a brightness amplitude of 0.10 in magnitude (U=1). The Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link assumes an albedo of 0.24 – which derives from 8 Flora, the largest member and namesake of this orbital family – and calculates a diameter of 2.4 kilometers.
The minor planet was named in honour of Tony Acevedo (b. 1950), staff member at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, working as multimedia graphic designer and media officer. Naming citation was published on 18 July 2008 (M.P.C. 63393).