Discovered by L. G. Karachkina MPC designation 3982 Kastel' Discovered 2 May 1984 Discoverer Lyudmila Karachkina Moon S/2005 (3982) 1 | Discovery date 2 May 1984 Minor planet category main-belt · Flora Orbits Sun Asteroid family Flora family | |
Named after Galina Ričardovna Kastel'
(astronomer) Alternative names 1984 JP1 · 1930 MF
1947 NE · 1954 RC
1978 TT5 Discovery site Crimean Astrophysical Observatory Similar 1338 Duponta, Asteroid belt, Solar System, 283 Emma, 3671 Dionysus | ||
3982 Kastel', provisional designation 1984 JP1, is a Florian asteroid and a suspected binary from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 6.9 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 2 May 1984, by Russian astronomer Lyudmila Karachkina at the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory in Nauchnij on the Crimean peninsula.
Kastel' is a member of the Flora family, one of the largest groups of stony S-type asteroids in the main-belt. It orbits the Sun at a distance of 1.8–2.8 AU once every 3 years and 5 months (1,240 days). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.22 and an inclination of 5° with respect to the ecliptic. Kastel' was first identified as 1930 MF at Lowell Observatory in 1930, extending the asteroid's observation arc by 54 years prior to its discovery observation.
In September 2009 and February 2014, two rotational light-curves were obtained for this asteroid. They gave a rotation period of 7000848770000000000♠8.4877 and 7000848800000000000♠8.488 hours with a brightness variation of 0.27 and 0.28 magnitude, respectively (U=n.a.).
During the first of the two a photometric observations – a collaboration between Czech astronomers Petr Pravec, Peter Kušnirák, Leonard Kornoš and Jozef Világi at Ondřejov Observatory, as well as American astronomers Donald P. Pray, R. Durkee, Walter R. Cooney Jr., John Gross and D. Terrell at several locations in the United States – it was revealed, that Kastel's light-curve consisted of two linearly additive components, indicative for the presence of an asteroid moon. However, no attenuations were observed, which typically occur when the primary and secondary body are eclipsing each other. After a second observation in 2014, the binary nature of Kastel' still remains uncertain.
According to the survey carried out by NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) with its subsequent NEOWISE mission, Kastel' measures 6.79 kilometers in diameter and its surface has an albedo of 0.201, while Petr Pravec's revised estimates of the thermal WISE observation gave a lower albedo of 0.1695 and consequently a larger diameter of 6.90 kilometers, based on an absolute magnitude of 13.35. WISE also classifies Kastel' as a dark and reddish P-type asteroid.
This minor planet was named in honor of Soviet astronomer Galina Ričardovna Kastel' astronomer at the Institute for Theoretical Astronomy (ITA) at Saint Petersburg (then Leningrad). A discoverer of minor planets herself, she is a known expert of the motions of small Solar System bodies and was involved with astrometric work at the discovering observatory. Naming citation was published on 28 May 1991 (M.P.C. 18306).