Discovered by C. Shoemaker MPC designation 4902 Thessandrus Alternative names 1989 AN2 · 1985 TK3 Absolute magnitude 9.6 Discoverer Carolyn S. Shoemaker | Discovery date 9 January 1989 Pronunciation the-san'-drəs Discovered 9 January 1989 Orbits Sun | |
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4902 Thessandrus (the-san'-drəs), provisionally designated 1989 AN2, is a rare-type Jupiter trojan from the Greek camp and an exceptionally slow rotator, approximately 60 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 9 January 1989, by American astronomer Carolyn Shoemaker at the U.S. Palomar Observatory in California.
The S-type asteroid is also classified as a rare D-type asteroid by Pan-STARRS large-scale survey. It orbits the Sun at a distance of 5.0–5.4 AU once every 11 years and 10 months (4,337 days). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.04 and an inclination of 9° with respect to the ecliptic. The first precovery was taken at the discovering observatory in 1954, extending the asteroid's observation arc by 35 years prior to its discovery.
In February 2013, a rotational light-curve was obtained from photometric observations by American astronomer Robert D. Stevens at the Center for Solar System Studies in California. It gave an exceptionally long rotation period of 7002738000000000000♠738±20 hours with a brightness variation of 0.60 in magnitude (U=2).
According to the survey carried out by the NEOWISE mission of NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, the asteroid measures 51.3 kilometers in diameter and its surface has an albedo of 0.081, while the Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link assumes a standard albedo for carbonaceous asteroids of 0.057 and calculates a somewhat larger diameter of 61.0 kilometers, as the lower the albedo (reflectivity), the larger the body's diameter, at a constant absolute magnitude (brightness).
The Jovian asteroid is named after Thessander(Thessandrus) from Greek mythology and Homer's Iliad. Together with 30 other Greek soldiers he hid in the Trojan horse's belly. Naming citation was published on 4 June 1993 (M.P.C. 22248).