Discovered by E. F. Helin MPC designation 8013 Gordonmoore Discovered 18 May 1990 Discoverer Eleanor F. Helin Asteroid group Amor asteroid | Discovery date 18 May 1990 Alternative names 1990 KA Orbits Sun Discovery site Palomar Observatory | |
Named after Gordon Moore
(entrepreneur) Minor planet category Amor · NEO · Mars-crosser Similar Sun, Solar System, 1221 Amor, 4015 Wilson–Harrington, 6489 Golevka | ||
8013 Gordonmoore, provisional designation 1990 KA, is an eccentric, stony asteroid, classified as Amor asteroid and near-Earth object, roughly 1–2 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 18 May 1990, by American astronomer Eleanor Helin at the U.S. Palomar Observatory in California.
The S-type asteroid orbits the Sun at a distance of 1.3–3.1 AU once every 3 years and 3 months (1,192 days). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.43 and an inclination of 8° with respect to the ecliptic. With a minimum orbit intersection distance with Earth of 0.2467 AU (37,000,000 km), the asteroid is only slightly above the threshold limit of 0.24 AU to become a potentially hazardous object. Due to its eccentric orbit, it is also Mars-crosser. It will pass the Red Planet within 0.02776 AU (4,153,000 km) in 2127. The first precovery was taken at the discovering Palomar Obsevatory in 1951, extending the asteroid's observation arc by 39 years prior to its discovery.
In April 2016, a rotational light-curve was obtained for this asteroid from photometric observations by astronomer Brian D. Warner at the Palmer Divide Station in Colorado. It gave a rotation period of 7000840000000000000♠8.40±0.01 hours with a brightness variation of 0.25 in magnitude (U=2), superseding a previous result from the Hoher List Observatory, Germany, that gave a period of 6 hours (U=1).
The Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link assumes a standard albedo for stony asteroids of 0.20 and calculates a diameter of 1.04 kilometers, based on an absolute magnitude of 17.26. In the 1990s, Tom Gehrels estimated the body's diameter to be 2.3 kilometers, assuming an albedo of 0.15.
The minor planet was named in honour of American entrepreneur and billionaire, Gordon Moore (b. 1929), co-founder of Intel, renowned for his revolutionary vision of the future of computers, and author of Moore's law. As a philanthropist, he has supported research and education all his life. Naming citation was published on 26 May 2002 (M.P.C. 45747).