Alternative names 1921 W19 Aphelion 3.2953 AU (492.97 Gm) Discovered 21 November 1921 Asteroid group Asteroid belt | Discovery date 21 November 1921 Observation arc 87.01 yr (31782 days) Perihelion 2.1842 AU (326.75 Gm) Absolute magnitude 7.85 | |
Discovery site United States Naval Observatory People also search for 387 Aquitania, 516 Amherstia | ||
980 Anacostia is a minor planet orbiting the Sun that was discovered by American astronomer George Henry Peters on November 21, 1921. The name recognizes the Anacostia River and an historic neighborhood of the same name in the city of Washington D.C.
Measurements using the adaptive optics system at the W. M. Keck Observatory give a diameter of 70 ± 6 km. This is 23% smaller than the diameter estimated from the IRAS observatory data. The size ratio between the major and minor axes is 1.09.
Polarimetric study of this asteroid reveals anomalous properties that suggests the regolith consists of a mixture of low and high albedo material. This may have been caused by fragmentation of an asteroid substrate with the spectral properties of CO3/CV3 carbonaceous chondrites.