Discovered by C.-I. Lagerkvist MPC designation 5088 Tancredi Discovered 22 August 1979 Discoverer Claes-Ingvar Lagerkvist Discovery site La Silla Observatory | Discovery date 22 August 1979 Minor planet category main-belt · Themis Orbits Sun Asteroid family Themis family Asteroid group Asteroid belt | |
Named after Gonzalo Tancredi
(astronomer) Alternative names 1979 QZ1 · 1982 DP6
1985 RS3 Similar Asteroid belt, Solar System, Sun | ||
5088 Tancredi, provisional designation 1979 QZ1, is a carbonaceous Themistian asteroid from the outer region of the asteroid belt, approximately 15 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 22 August 1979, by Swedish astronomer Claes-Ingvar Lagerkvist at ESO's La Silla Observatory in northern Chile.
The dark 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 2.6–3.6 AU once every 5 years and 6 months (1,998 days). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.16 and an inclination of 1° with respect to the ecliptic. As no precoveries were taken, the asteroid's observation arc begins with its discovery observation in 1979.
In February 2009, a rotational light-curve was obtained for this asteroid from photometric observations by Gonzalo Tancredi at the Los Molinos Observatory near Montevideo, Uruguay. It gave a rotation period of 7000505910000000000♠5.0591±0.0001 hours with a brightness amplitude of 0.31 magnitude (U=3-).
According to the survey carried out by the NEOWISE mission of NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, the asteroid measures 15.9 kilometers in diameter and its surface has an albedo of 0.07, while the Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link assumes an albedo of 0.08 and calculates a diameter of 12.8 kilometers.
The minor planet was named after Gonzalo Tancredi (b. 1963), the Uruguayan astronomer who also obtained the body's first rotational light-curve. In 1993 he did his Ph.D. at Uppsala Observatory, Sweden, and is now a professor of astronomy at Uruguay University and an active member of the IAU. He was also a director of the Los Molinos Observatory (2004–2012). Using both observations and theoretical modeling, he works on the dynamical and physical evolution of comets and their interactions with minor planets in the Solar System. Naming citation was published on 1 September 1993 (M.P.C. 22506).