Discovered by D. di Cicco MPC designation 8900 AAVSO Discovered 24 October 1995 Orbits Sun Discovery site Sudbury observatory | Discovery date 24 October 1995 Minor planet category main-belt · (middle) Absolute magnitude 12.9 Asteroid group Asteroid belt | |
Alternative names 1995 UD2 · 1979 UV1987 SX16 · 1989 EU2 People also search for 12553 Aaronritter, 13928 Aaronrogers | ||
8900 AAVSO, provisional designation 1995 UD2, is a stony asteroid from the middle region of the asteroid belt, approximately 5.5 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered by American amateur astronomer Dennis di Cicco at the U.S Sudbury Observatory , Massachusetts, on 24 October 1995.
The stony S-type asteroid orbits the Sun at a distance of 2.2–2.9 AU once every 4.04 years (1,475 days). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.15 and an inclination of 9° with respect to the ecliptic. The first precovery was obtained at Kleť Observatory in 1979, extending the asteroid's observation arc by 16 years prior to its discovery.
In May 2010, a photometric light-curve analysis at the U.S. Palomar Transient Factory, California, gave it a rotation period of 7000383680000000000♠3.8368±0.0005 hours with a brightness amplitude of 0.43 in magnitude (U=2). According to the NEOWISE mission of NASA's space-based Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, the asteroid measures 5.8 kilometers in diameter and its surface has an albedo of 0.28, while the Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link assumes a standard albedo for stony asteroids of 0.20 and calculates a diameter of 5.3 kilometers.
The minor planet was named after the American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO), an astronomical pro-am organization that promotes the study of variable stars to both amateur and professional astronomers, maintaining the largest database of variable star observations in the world. It was founded in 1911 by amateur astronomer William Tyler Olcott (1873–1936), based on a suggestion by Edward Charles Pickering's (1846–1919), after whom the minor planet 784 Pickeringia is named. Naming citation was published on 1 May 2003 (M.P.C. 48388).