Discovered by Edward L. G. Bowell Observation arc 15469 days (42.35 yr) Discovered 3 May 1981 Spectral type S-type asteroid Named after Harold Masursky | Discovery date 3 May 1981 Orbital period 1,505 days Orbits Sun Discoverer Edward L. G. Bowell | |
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Alternative names 1950 VO; 1973 QF;
1975 XJ5; 1977 KU;
1981 JN Minor planet category Main belt (Eunomia family) Aphelion 2.85094 AU (426.495 Gm) Similar Solar System, 132524 APL, Asteroid belt, 5535 Annefrank, Sun | ||
The asteroid 2685 Masursky is a main-belt asteroid. It was discovered by Edward (Ted) Bowell in 1981. It was named after Harold Masursky (1923–1990), a planetary geologist at the U.S. Geological Survey, Flagstaff, who worked on numerous space missions.
Little was known about Masursky until the Cassini space probe, en route to Jupiter and Saturn, flew past it on 23 January 2000. Because Cassini passed the asteroid at a distance of 1.6 million kilometres (about four times the Earth–Moon distance), the images it returned showed nothing more than a dot. Nevertheless, Cassini was able to determine Masursky's size, about 15–20 km in diameter. The asteroid was between 0.81 and 1.08 arcseconds in apparent diameter.
Masursky's orbit places it within the Eunomia family of S-type asteroids. Cassini's observations had cast some doubt on its composition, but later ground-based spectroscopy has confirmed its S-type spectrum.