Discovered by LINEAR Discovery date 23 July 2000 Alternative names 2000 OQ23 · 1999 CY85 Absolute magnitude 14.4 Asteroid group Asteroid belt | Discovery site Lincoln Lab's ETS MPC designation 32226 Vikulgupta Discovered 23 July 2000 Asteroid family Flora family | |
Named after Vikul Gupta
(2016 Intel STS) Discoverer Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research People also search for 8 Flora, 915 Cosette, 967 Helionape, 3412 Kafka, 428 Monachia | ||
32226 Vikulgupta, provisional designation 2000 OQ23, is a stony Flora asteroid from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 3.5 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 23 July 2000, by the U.S. LINEAR team at Lincoln Laboratory's Experimental Test Site, Socorro, New Mexico.
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 2.1–2.6 AU once every 3 years and 7 months (1,295 days). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.11 and an inclination of 4° with respect to the ecliptic. The first precovery was taken at Whipple Observatory in 1997, extending the asteroid's observation arc by 3 years prior to its discovery.
In February 2013, two rotational light-curves were obtained from photometric observations made at the U.S Palomar Transient Factory in California. The light-curves gave a rotation period of 7000256999999999999♠2.57±0.05 and 7000257240000000000♠2.5724±0.0006 hours with a brightness variation of 0.35 and 0.34 in magnitude, respectively (U=2/2). According to the survey carried out by the NEOWISE mission of NASA's space-based Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, the asteroid measures 3.8 kilometers in diameter and its surface has an albedo of 0.215, while the Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link assumes an albedo of 0.24 – derived from 8 Flora, the largest member and namesake of its orbital family – and calculates a diameter of 3.1 kilometers, based on an absolute magnitude of 14.7.
The minor planet was named after Vikul Gupta (b. 1998), a science competition finalist in the 2016 Intel Science Talent Search, who was awarded for his computer science project. At the time, he attended the U.S. Oregon Episcopal School in Portland. Naming citation was published on 21 May 2016 (M.P.C. 100315).