5756 Wassenbergh
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Palomar–Leiden survey
Wassenbergh is a member of the Rafita family (518),[3] a large family of stony asteroid, named after 1644 Rafita.[6] It orbits the Sun in the central asteroid belt at a distance of 2.0–3.2 AU once every 4 years and 2 months (1,516 days; semi-major axis of 2.58 AU). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.22 and an inclination of 8° with respect to the ecliptic.[2] The body's observation arc begins with its official discovery observation at Palomar in 1960.[1]
The survey designation "P-L" stands for "Palomar–Leiden", named after Palomar and Leiden observatories, which collaborated on the fruitful Palomar–Leiden survey in the 1960s. Tom Gehrels used Palomar's Samuel Oschin telescope (also known as the 48-inch Schmidt Telescope), and shipped the photographic plates to Ingrid and Cornelis van Houten at Leiden Observatory where astrometry was carried out. The trio are credited with the discovery of several thousand asteroid discoveries.[7]
Physical characteristics
Wassenbergh has been characterized as an L-type asteroid by the SDSS-taxonomy based on the Moving Object Catalog (MOC).[5] The Rafita family's overall spectral type is that of a stony S-type.[6]: 23 The asteroid has an absolute magnitude of 14.1.[1][2] As of 2018, no rotational lightcurve has been obtained from photometric observations. The body's rotation period, pole and shape remain unknown.[2]
Diameter and albedo
According to the survey carried out by the NEOWISE mission of NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, Wassenbergh measures 3.930 kilometers in diameter and its surface has an albedo of 0.262.[4]
