Discovered by C.-I. Lagerkvist MPC designation 7548 Engström Discovered 16 March 1980 Discoverer Claes-Ingvar Lagerkvist Discovery site La Silla Observatory | Discovery date 16 March 1980 Minor planet category main-belt · Themis Orbits Sun Asteroid family Themis family Asteroid group Asteroid belt | |
Named after Albert Engström
(Swedish artist) Alternative names 1980 FW2 · 1993 QA4
1999 TS324 People also search for Sun, 4593 Reipurth, 3634 Iwan | ||
7548 Engström, provisional designation 1980 FW2, is dark Themistian asteroid from the outer region of the asteroid belt, approximately 10 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 16 March 1980, by Swedish astronomer Claes-Ingvar Lagerkvist at ESO's La Silla Observatory site in northern Chile.
The carbonaceous 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 7 months (2,038 days). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.16 and an inclination of 0° with respect to the ecliptic. No precoveries were taken prior to the asteroid's discovery.
In 2010, photometric observations at the U.S. Palomar Transient Factory, California, gave a rotational light-curve with a period of 7000523090000000000♠5.2309±0.0059 hours and a brightness amplitude of 0.35 in magnitude (U=2).
According to the survey carried out by the NEOWISE mission of NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, the asteroid measures 11.1 km in diameter and its surface has a low albedo of 0.057, while the Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link (CALL) assumes an albedo of 0.08 and calculates a smaller diameter of 7.7 kilometers, based on an absolute magnitude of 13.93.
The minor planet was named after Albert Engström (1869–1940), Swedish artist and author, who became a member of the esteemed Swedish academy in 1922. He was born in Lönneberga, Småland. After his studies of Greek and Latin at Uppsala University, he went on to Valand School of Fine Arts in Gothenburg. Renowned painter of caricatures and founder of the humor magazine Strix, he is best known for his black and white illustrations. Naming citation was published on 11 April 1998 (M.P.C. 31611).