Discovery date 24 September 1960 Minor planet category main-belt · (middle) Orbits Sun Asteroid group Asteroid belt | MPC designation 5010 Amenemhêt Discovered 24 September 1960 Discovery site Palomar Observatory | |
Discovered by C. van Houten
I. van Houten
T. Gehrels Named after Amenemhět III
(Pharaoh, 12th Dyn.) Alternative names 4594 P-L · 1981 EU32
1990 FA1 Discoverers Tom Gehrels, Cornelis Johannes van Houten, Ingrid van Houten-Groeneveld Similar Asteroid belt, Sun, Solar System | ||
5010 Amenemhêt, provisional designation 4594 P-L, is a stony asteroid from the middle region of the asteroid belt, approximately 9 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 24 September 1960, by Dutch astronomer couple Ingrid and Cornelis van Houten at Leiden, on photographic plates taken by Dutch–American astronomer Tom Gehrels at the U.S Palomar Observatory, California.
The asteroid orbits the Sun at a distance of 2.2–3.3 AU once every 4 years and 6 months (1,634 days). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.20 and an inclination of 15° with respect to the ecliptic. Its observation arc already begins in 1955, due to precoveries taken at the U.S. Goethe Link Observatory in Indiana.
A rotational light-curve was obtained through photometric observations at the Serbian Belgrade Astronomical Observatory in May 2008. The light-curve showed a period of 7000339000000000000♠3.390±0.002 hours with a brightness amplitude of 0.18 in magnitude (U=3-), superseding a previous light-curve from two South-American observatories (U=1). The body has a S-type spectrum as classified in the SMASS taxonomic scheme and also determined by a large-scale survey performed by Pan-STARRS. The Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link assumes a standard albedo for stony asteroids of 0.20 and calculates a diameter of 9.4 kilometers, based on an absolute magnitude of 12.5.
The survey designation "P-L" stands for Palomar–Leiden, named after Palomar Observatory and Leiden Observatory, which collaborated on the fruitful Palomar–Leiden survey in the 1960s. Gehrels used Palomar's Samuel Oschin telescope (also known as the 48-inch Schmidt Telescope), and shipped the photographic plates to Ingrid and Cornelis van Houten at Leiden where astrometry was carried out. The trio are credited with the discovery of several thousand minor planets.
The minor planet is named after the Egyptian pharaoh Amenemhět III (1844–1797 B.C.), who built the Great Canal (Mer-Wer) and brought prosperity to the Faiyum Oasis by linking it with the Nile. The area then became a breadbasket for the country. At the Hawara site in Faiyum, he built a mortuary temple, which the Greek historian Herodotus referred to as "labyrinth". Amenemhět's father was the pharaoh Sesostris III (also see the minor planets 4414 Sesostris and 3092 Herodotus). Naming citation was published on 1 September 1993 (M.P.C. 22505).