Discovered 23 August 1983 Orbits Sun | Discovery date 23 August 1983 Minor planet category main-belt · (middle) Absolute magnitude 11.9 Asteroid group Asteroid belt | |
Named after IRAS (space observatory) Alternative names 1983 QF · 1948 RN1963 FA · 1972 FH1976 GL · 1985 GT Similar Sun, Solar System, 3200 Phaethon | ||
3728 IRAS, provisional designation 1983 QF, is a stony asteroid from the middle region of the asteroid belt, approximately 20 kilometers in diameter. On 23 August 1983, it was discovered by and later named after IRAS, a spaceborne all-sky infrared survey satellite.
The S-type asteroid is also classified as a CX-type by Pan-STARRS' large-scale survey. It orbits the Sun at a distance of 2.1–3.2 AU once every 4 years and 4 months (1,575 days). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.21 and an inclination of 23° with respect to the ecliptic. The first used precovery was taken at Palomar Observatory in 1950, extending the asteroid's observation arc by 33 years prior to its discovery.
In August 2008, a photometric light-curve analysis by U.S. astronomer Brian Warner at his Palmer Divide Observatory (716), Colorado, gave a well-defined rotation period of 7000832300000000000♠8.323±0.002 hours with a brightness amplitude of 0.21 in magnitude (U=3).
According to 12 observations by the discovering Infrared Astronomical Satellite, IRAS, the asteroid has an albedo of 0.12 and a diameter of 19.6 kilometers. The Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link derives similar figures, as do the space-based surveys carried out by the Japanese Akari satellite, and NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer. Two publications from the post-cryogenic NEOWISE mission find a larger diameter of 23.4 and 27.5 kilometers, respectively.
The minor planet was named for the discovering Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS), a collaboration between the United States (NASA), the Netherlands (NIVR), and the United Kingdom (SERC), which observed more than 250,000 celestial bodies in the infrared at wavelengths between 12 and 100 µm during 10 months in 1983. IRAS has also discovered two other minor planets, the 11-kilometer sized main-belt asteroid (10714) 1983 QG and 3200 Phaethon, a near-Earth and potentially hazardous object, parent body of the Geminid meteor shower, as well as six comets, such as 126P/IRAS, a short-period Jupiter family comet, which was also named after the discovering space observatory. Naming citation was published on 4 May 1999 (M.P.C. 34619).