Discovered by La Silla Obs. MPC designation 8991 Solidarity Discovered 6 August 1980 Inclination 6.7887° Discovery site La Silla Observatory | Discovery date 6 August 1980 Minor planet category main-belt · (middle) Aphelion 3.3 m Orbits Sun Asteroid group Asteroid belt | |
Named after Solidarity
(in memory of 9/11) Alternative names 1980 PV1 · 1975 QB
1979 HC1 · 1985 SD3
1988 FR3 · 1988 GW2 Discoverers European Southern Observatory, La Silla Observatory | ||
8991 Solidarity, provisional designation 1980 PV1, is a carbonaceous asteroid from the middle region of the asteroid belt, approximately 10 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 6 August 1980, by observers at ESO's La Silla Observatory site in northern Chile.
The C-type asteroid orbits the Sun at a distance of 2.3–3.3 AU once every 4 years and 8 months (1,700 days). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.18 and an inclination of 7° with respect to the ecliptic. The first used observation was made at Cerro El Roble Observatory in 1979, extending the asteroid's observation arc by 1 year prior to its discovery.
In January 2011, a rotational light-curve for this asteroid was obtained from photometric observations at the U.S Palomar Transient Factory, California. It gave a rotation period of 7000523880000000000♠5.2388±0.0034 hours with a brightness variation of 0.19 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 8.4 kilometers in diameter and its surface has an albedo of 0.17, while the Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link assumes a standard albedo for carbonaceous asteroids of 0.057 and calculates a diameter of 12.9 kilometers, based on an absolute magnitude of 13.18.
The asteroid was named in response to the September 11 attacks. As a commemorative gesture, the IAU's Committee for the Nomenclature of Small Bodies chose three objects discovered in observatories on different continents and christened them with names representing some of the most basic and universal human values. The other two selections were 8990 Compassion (discovered from Europe) and 8992 Magnanimity (discovered from Asia). Naming citation was published on 2 October 2001 (M.P.C. 43684).