Discovered by E. Bowell MPC designation 3673 Levy Discovered 22 August 1985 Discoverer Edward L. G. Bowell Discovery site Anderson Mesa Station | Discovery date 22 August 1985 Minor planet category main-belt · Flora Orbits Sun Asteroid family Flora family Asteroid group Asteroid belt | |
Named after David H. Levy
(astronomer) Alternative names 1985 QS · 1969 ER
1978 SW5 · 1978 WN Similar 3169 Ostro, Solar System, Asteroid belt, 3671 Dionysus, 5261 Eureka | ||
3673 Levy, provisional designation 1985 QS, is a binary Flora asteroid from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 6 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 22 August 1985, by American astronomer Edward Bowell at Lowell's Anderson Mesa Station near Flagstaff, Arizona, United States.
The S-type asteroid is a member of the Flora family, one of the largest groups of stony asteroids in the main-belt. Levy orbits the Sun at a distance of 1.9–2.8 AU once every 3 years and 7 months (1,311 days). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.19 and an inclination of 7° with respect to the ecliptic. It was first identified as "1969 ER" at Crimea–Nauchnij in 1969, extending its observation arc by 16 years prior to the official discovery observation.
In December 2007, astronomers from the U.S. Carbuncle Hill Observatory (I00) in Rhode Island, the Czech Ondřejov Observatory, and the Californian Goat Mountain Astronomical Research Station (G79) obtained a rotational light-curve showing Levy to turn on its axis every 2.688 hours. The low brightness variation of 0.13 magnitude indicates that the body has a nearly spheroidal shape (U=3). During the photometric observations, it was also discovered that Levy is a binary asteroid, orbited every 21.67 hours by a satellite, which approximately measures 7001280000000000000♠28±3 % of Levy's diameter (1.8 kilometer).
According to the survey carried out by NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer with its subsequent NEOWISE mission, Levy measures between 5.80 and 6.47 kilometers in diameter and its surface has an albedo between 0.234 and 0.398. The Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link agrees with the revised WISE-results by Pravec and adopts an albedo of 0.2341 and a diameter of 6.47 kilometers, based on an absolute magnitude of 13.14.
The minor planet was named in honor of Canadian astronomer David H. Levy (b. 1948), a discoverer of minor planets and comets and a highly committed observer, who uses a large repertoire of observational techniques. He is also an educator and author, known for his biographies of astronomers and for his launched educational programs, bringing observational astronomy to the broader public. Naming citation was published on 2 April 1988 (M.P.C. 12974).
He one of the most successful comet discoverers in history. He has discovered 22 comets, nine of them using his own backyard telescopes. With Eugene and Carolyn Shoemaker at the Palomar Observatory in California he discovered Shoemaker-Levy 9, the comet that collided with Jupiter in 1994. That episode produced the most spectacular explosions ever witnessed in the solar system. Levy is currently involved with the Jarnac Comet Survey, which is based at the Jarnac Observatory (G92) in Vail, Arizona, but which has telescopes planned for locations around the world.