Discovered by K. Reinmuth MPC designation 3425 Hurukawa Discovered 29 January 1929 Discoverer Karl Wilhelm Reinmuth | Discovery date 29 January 1929 Orbits Sun | |
Alternative names 1929 BD · 1951 GB1971 DJ1 · 1978 PN1979 SG1 · 1981 DW3A903 CB Observation arc 113.76 yr (41,551 days) Discovery site Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory Similar 1862 Apollo, Sun, 1419 Danzig, 1056 Azalea, 1635 Bohrmann | ||
3425 Hurukawa, provisional designation 1929 BD, is a stony Eos asteroid from the outer region of the asteroid belt, approximately 25 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered by German astronomer Karl Reinmuth at Heidelberg Observatory on 29 January 1929.
The asteroid is a member of the Eos family, an orbital group of more than 4,000 asteroids, which are well known for mostly being of a stony S-type composition with relatively high albedos. It orbits the Sun at a distance of 2.7–3.3 AU once every 5 years and 2 months (1,899 days). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.08 and an inclination of 9° with respect to the ecliptic. The first precovery was taken at the discovering observatory in 1903, extending the asteroid's observation arc by 26 years prior to its discovery.
A rotational light-curve was obtained for this asteroid from photometric observations taken by French astronomer Raymond Poncy in September 2005. It gave a well-defined, slightly longer-than-average rotation period of 7001248400000000000♠24.84±0.01 hours with a brightness variation of 0.47 in magnitude (U=3-). The period was confirmed by observations taken at the U.S. Palomar Transient Factory in August 2010, which rendered a period of 7001248158000000000♠24.8158±0.0402 hours and an amplitude of 0.17 (U=2), superseding a third period of 16 hours from a fragmentary light-curve obtained by French astronomer René Roy in 2007 (U=1).
According to the surveys carried out by the Infrared Astronomical Satellite IRAS, the Japanese Akari satellite, and NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer with its subsequent NEOWISE mission, the asteroid measures between 21.3 and 27.8 kilometers in diameter and its surface has an untypically low albedo between 0.10 and 0.17. The Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link derives an albedo of 0.11 and a diameter of 25.3 kilometers.
The minor planet was named in honor of Japanese Kiichirō Furukawa (1929–2016), who was an astronomer at Tokyo Astronomical Observatory and an observer and discoverer of minor planets himself. Naming citation was published on 16 December 1986 (M.P.C. 11443).