Discovery date 24 September 1960 Named after Eugenio Mendoza Discovered 24 September 1960 Orbits Sun Asteroid group Asteroid belt | MPC designation 3868 Mendoza Minor planet category main-belt Absolute magnitude 12.5 | |
Discovered by Palomar–Leiden surveyC. J. van Houten, I. van Houten-GroeneveldT. Gehrels Alternative names 4575 P-L; 1935 SA11952 HV3; 1953 TD21977 KD1 Similar 1338 Duponta, Asteroid belt, Sun, Solar System, 3047 Goethe | ||
3868 Mendoza (4575 P-L) is a main-belt binary asteroid discovered on September 24, 1960 by Cornelis Johannes van Houten, Ingrid van Houten-Groeneveld and Tom Gehrels at Palomar Observatory. In 2009, a moon was discovered, 7003200999999999999♠2.01±0.18 km in diameter, orbiting the asteroid in a little more than a day.
The designation P–L stands for Palomar–Leiden, named after Palomar Observatory and Leiden Observatory, the observatories which collaborated on the fruitful Palomar–Leiden survey in the 1960s. Gehrels used Palomar's 48-inch Samuel Oschin telescope and shipped the photographic plates to Cornelis Johannes van Houten and Ingrid van Houten-Groeneveld at Leiden Observatory. The trio are credited with several thousand asteroid discoveries.
It was named in honor of Eugenio Mendoza, astronomer, expert in photometry and spectroscopy, member of the IAU and teacher at several Mexican universities.