Discovered by T. Smirnova MPC designation 3962 Valyaev Discovered 8 February 1967 Orbits Sun Asteroid family Themis family | Discovery date 8 February 1967 Minor planet category main-belt · Themis Absolute magnitude 12.4 Discoverer Tamara Smirnova Asteroid group Asteroid belt | |
Named after Valerij Valyaev (astronomer) Alternative names 1967 CC · 1973 GL1
1976 UT10 · 1982 XE1
1984 DC2 Discovery site Crimean Astrophysical Observatory | ||
3962 Valyaev, provisional designation 1967 CC, is a carbonaceous Themistian asteroid from the outer region of the asteroid belt, approximately 15 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 8 February 1967, by Russian astronomer Tamara Smirnova at Crimean Astrophysical Observatory in Nauchnyj on the Crimean peninsula.
The C-type asteroid is a member of the Themis family, a dynamical family of outer-belt asteroids with nearly coplanar ecliptical orbits. It orbits the Sun at a distance of 2.8–3.6 AU once every 5 years and 9 months (2,100 days). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.11 and an inclination of 2° with respect to the ecliptic. The first precovery was obtained at Palomar Observatory in 1956, extending the asteroid's observation arc by 11 years prior to its discovery.
In September 2010, a rotational light-curve was obtained from photometric observations by a survey performed at the U.S. Palomar Transient Factory in California. The light-curve gave a rotation period of 7001164399000000000♠16.4399±0.0077 hours with a brightness amplitude of 0.44 in magnitude (U=2).
According to the NEOWISE mission of NASA's space-based Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, the asteroid measures 16.3 kilometers in diameter and its surface has a low albedo of 0.088, The Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link (CALL) assumes a typical albedo for carbonaceous asteroids of 0.08 and calculates a somewhat smaller diameter of 12.6 kilometers.
The minor planet was named after Russian astronomer Valerij Ivanovich Valyaev (b. 1944), chief of the Ephemeris Astronomy Department at the Institute for Theoretical Astronomy (ITA), which was then part of the USSR Academy of Sciences in Leningrad. The minor planet 1735 ITA is named after this institute. Valyaev is also the senior editor of the periodicals Morskoj Astronomicheskij Ezhegodnik and Aviatsionnyj Astronomicheskij Ezhegodnik. The asteroids's name was proposed by ITA. Naming citation was published on 18 December 1994 (M.P.C. 24410).