Discovered by T. Smirnova MPC designation 58097 Alimov Discovered 26 October 1976 Orbits Sun Asteroid group Asteroid belt | Discovery date 26 October 1976 Minor planet category main-belt · (inner) Absolute magnitude 14.2 Discoverer Tamara Smirnova | |
Named after Alexandr Alimov
(Russian ecologist) Alternative names 1976 UQ1 · 1976 WO
2001 TE43 Discovery site Crimean Astrophysical Observatory | ||
58097 Alimov, provisional designation 1976 UQ1, is a stony asteroid and relatively slow rotator from the middle region of the asteroid belt, approximately 4 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 26 October 1976, by Russian astronomer Tamara Smirnova at the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory in Nauchnyj, on the Crimean peninsula.
The S-type asteroid orbits the Sun at a distance of 1.9–3.2 AU once every 4 years and 1 month (1,502 days). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.26 and an inclination of 13° with respect to the ecliptic. A precovery was taken at the Japanese Kiso Observatory on 22 October 1976, extending the asteroid's observation arc by just 4 days prior to its discovery.
A rotational light-curve of this asteroid was obtained from photometric observations made at the U.S. Palomar Transient Factory, California, in October 2013. It gave a relatively long rotation period of 7001781729000000000♠78.1729±0.3152 hours with a brightness amplitude of 0.26 in magnitude (U=2). According to the survey carried out by the NEOWISE mission of NASA's space-based Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, the asteroid measures 3.9 and 4.0 kilometers in diameter and its surface has an albedo of 0.136 and 0.152, respectively. The Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link assumes a standard albedo for stony asteroids of 0.20 and calculates a diameter of 3.7 kilometers, based on an absolute magnitude of 14.54.
The minor planet was named after Russian ecologist Alexandr Fyodorovich Alimov (b. 1933), president of the Hydrobiological Society and founder of the Russian School of Functional Ecology. He is known for his theoretical and experimental work on aquatic ecosystems and for the study on the prevention of ecological crisis. Naming citation was published on 6 March 2004 (M.P.C. 51190). (Alexandr Fyodorovich Alimov should not be confused with Aleksandr Fyodorovich Akimov, who worked at Chernobyl during the nuclear accident).