Discovery date 10 January 1986 Absolute magnitude 13.9 | MPC designation 52266 Van Flandern Discovered 10 January 1986 Orbits Sun Asteroid group Asteroid belt | |
Discovered by C. S. ShoemakerE. M. Shoemaker Alternative names 1986 AD · 1975 CJ1998 QX81 · 2002 QQ Discoverers Carolyn S. Shoemaker, Eugene Merle Shoemaker Similar Sun, 3554 Amun, Comet Shoemak, 129P/Shoemaker–Levy, 118P/Shoemaker–Levy | ||
52266 Van Flandern, provisional designation 1986 AD, is a stony Phocaea asteroid from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 4.5 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered by American astronomers Carolyn and Eugene Shoemaker at the U.S. Palomar Observatory, California, on 10 January 1986.
The stony S-type asteroid is a member of the Phocaea family, a group of asteroids with similar orbital characteristics. It orbits the Sun at a distance of 1.8–2.8 AU once every 3 years and 7 months (1,303 days). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.22 and an inclination of 24° with respect to the ecliptic. The first precovery was taken at the German Karl Schwarzschild Observatory in 1975, extending the asteroid's observation arc by 11 years prior to its discovery.
In January and February 2011, four rotational light-curves were obtained from photometric observations at the Via Capote Observatory in California, the Palomar Transient Factory, and the Australian Oakley Southern Sky Observatory, as well as by astronomer René Roy at Blauvac Observatory, France. The light-curves rendered a well-defined rotation period between 9.65 and 9.89 hours with a brightness variation of 0.58, 0.61, 0.52, and 0.59 in magnitude, respectively (U=3/2/3/2+).
According to the survey carried out by NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer with its subsequent NEOWISE mission, the asteroid measures 4.4 kilometers in diameter and its surface has an albedo of 0.249, while the Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link assumes an albedo of 0.23 – derived from 25 Phocaea, the family's most massive member and namesake – and calculates a diameter of 4.6 kilometers, based on an absolute magnitude of 13.9.
The minor planet was named in memory of American astronomer Tom Van Flandern (1940–2009), expert in lunar occultations and on the dynamics of binary minor planets at USNO in the 1970s. Van Flandern also participated in the refinement of the Global Positioning System and published the Meta Research Bulletin for non-mainstream views on cosmology. Naming citation was published on 9 February 2009 (M.P.C. 65123).