Discovered by E. F. Helin MPC designation 6181 Bobweber Discovered 6 September 1986 Orbits Sun Discovery site Palomar Observatory | Discovery date 6 September 1986 Minor planet category main-belt · (inner) Absolute magnitude 13.3 Discoverer Eleanor F. Helin Asteroid group Asteroid belt | |
Named after Robert Weber
(astronomer) Alternative names 1986 RW · 1979 YU8
1990 WL2 Similar 4015 Wilson–Harrington, Sun, 6489 Golevka, 9969 Braille, 4769 Castalia | ||
6181 Bobweber, provisional designation 1986 RW, is a stony asteroid from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 5 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 6 September 1986, by American astronomer Eleanor Helin at the U.S. Palomar Observatory in California.
The S-type asteroid orbits the Sun at a distance of 1.9–3.0 AU once every 3 years and 9 months (1,384 days). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.24 and an inclination of 8° with respect to the ecliptic. The first precovery was taken at the discovering observatory in 1954, extending the asteroid's observation arc by 32 years prior to its discovery observation.
A rotational light-curve for this asteroid was obtained from photometric observations by Czech astronomer Petr Pravec at Ondřejov Observatory in December 2009. It gave a well-defined rotation period of 7000275796000000000♠2.75796±0.00003 hours with a brightness variation of 0.12 in magnitude (U=3). In January 2014, astronomer Julian Oey at the Australian Blue Mountains Observatory (Q68) obtained a nearly identical period of 7000275760000000000♠2.7576±0.0001 hours with an amplitude of 0.15 magnitude (U=3-).
According to the surveys carried out by NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer with its subsequent NEOWISE mission, the asteroid measures 4.5 kilometers in diameter and its surface has a high albedo of 0.42 and 0.43, respectively, while the Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link assumes a standard albedo for stony asteroids of 0.20 and calculates a diameter of 5.7 kilometers.
The minor planet was named in memory of Robert Weber (1926–2008), physicist and discoverer of minor planets at MIT Lincoln Laboratory, developer of the Deep Space Satellite Tracking Network. He also co-developed and was credited with the first discoveries made by the Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research (LINEAR) at Lincoln Laboratory's Experimental Test Site at White Sands Missile Range in Socorro, New Mexico. Naming citation was published on 21 March 2008 (M.P.C. 62353).