Discovered by F. Börngen MPC designation 3181 Ahnert Discovered 8 March 1964 Discoverer Freimut Börngen Asteroid group Asteroid belt | Discovery date 8 March 1964 Minor planet category main-belt · Flora Orbits Sun Asteroid family Flora family | |
Named after Paul Ahnert (astronomer) Alternative names 1964 EC · 1932 RK
1936 XJ · 1951 GC1
1964 DE · 1975 NH1
1975 RD · 1979 SC12
1979 UO4 · 1979 WD8
1979 WU1 · 1982 RE1 Discovery site Karl Schwarzschild Observatory People also search for 3480 Abante, 3646 Aduatiques, 3654 AAS | ||
3181 Ahnert, provisional designation 1964 EC, is a stony Flora asteroid from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, about 8 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered by German astronomer Freimut Börngen at the Karl Schwarzschild Observatory in Tautenburg, eastern Germany, on 8 March 1964.
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 2.1–2.4 AU once every 3 years and 4 months (1,215 days). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.07 and an inclination of 4° with respect to the ecliptic. The first precovery was obtained at Lowell Observatory in 1931, extending the asteroid's observation arc by 33 years prior to its discovery.
According to the surveys carried out by NASA's space-based Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer with its subsequent NEOWISE mission, the asteroid measures between 8.0 and 8.6 kilometers and its surface has an albedo between 0.19 and 0.26. The Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link assumes an intermediate albedo of 0.24 – derived from 8 Flora, the largest member and namesake of this orbital family – and calculates a diameter of 8.2 kilometers. As of 2016, the asteroid's rotation period and shape still remain unknown.
The minor planet was named after German astronomer Paul Ahnert (1897–1989), author of the annual calendar of astronomical events (German: Kalender für Sternfreunde) and a renowned astronomer among professionals and amateurs. His fields of research included the physics of the Solar System and periods of variable stars at the Sonneberg Observatory. (The minor planet 1039 Sonneberga is named after this observatory.) Publisher of several books on performing astronomical observations, he also popularized the subject of astronomy to the general public. Naming citation was published on 2 July 1985 (M.P.C. 9771).