Discovered by W. Landgraf MPC designation 4349 Tiburcio Discovered 5 June 1989 Orbits Sun Discovery site La Silla Observatory | Discovery date 5 June 1989 Minor planet category main-belt · (middle) Absolute magnitude 11.7 Discoverer Werner Landgraf Asteroid group Asteroid belt | |
Named after Júlio Tibúrcio
(amateur astronomer) Alternative names 1989 LX · 1931 AE
1951 YV1 · 1959 SS
1968 WD · 1982 BJ4
1984 MJ · 1986 AZ2 People also search for Sun, 9938 Kretlow, 3683 Baumann, 4378 Voigt, 29148 Palzer, 7696 Liebe, 17412 Kroll | ||
4349 Tibúrcio, provisional designation 1989 LX, is a dark asteroid from the middle region of the asteroid belt, approximately 26 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered by German astronomer Werner Landgraf at ESO's La Silla Observatory in northern Chile, on 5 June 1989. With 53.5°, it had been the asteroid with the smallest angular distance from the Sun ever discovered.
The asteroid is classified as both, a stony S-type body by the Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link (CALL) and as a X-type asteroid by Pan-STARRS' large-scale survey. It orbits the Sun at a distance of 2.0–3.3 AU once every 4 years and 3 months (1,551 days). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.24 and an inclination of 11° with respect to the ecliptic. The first precovery was taken at the U.S. Lowell Observatory in 1931, extending the asteroid's observation arc by 58 years prior to its discovery.
A rotational light-curve for this asteroid was obtained from photometric observations by astronomer David Higgins at the Australian Hunters Hill Observatory in October 2010. The light-curve gave a well-defined rotation period of 7001162840000000000♠16.284±0.003 hours with a brightness variation of 0.40 in magnitude (U=3).
According to the space-based surveys carried out by the Infrared Astronomical Satellite IRAS, the Japanese Akari satellite, and NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer with its NEOWISE mission, the asteroid measures between 24.9 and 28.1 kilometers in diameter, and its surface has a low albedo between 0.034 and 0.061. while CALL assumes an albedo of 0.049 and calculates a diameter of 26.1 kilometers, based on an absolute magnitude of 11.8.
The minor planet was named after Brazilian amateur astronomer and student of information science, Júlio César dos Santos Tibúrcio. Naming citation was published on 8 June 1990 (M.P.C. 16445).