Asteroid (183294) Langbroek
In August 2008, the
Committee
on Small Body Nomenclature of the International
Astronomical Union
(IAU) officially named asteroid 183294 (also known by its
provisional designation 2002
TB382):
(183294)
Langbroek.
The suggestion to do so came from the discoverers of the object: Stefan
Kürti (who found it in NEAT archive imagery) and the
NEAT
program. It is an honour that I cherish.
The naming citation was
published in Minor
Planet Circular # 63643 and reads as follows:
(183294)
Langbroek = 2002 TB382
Discovered
2002 Oct. 9 by NEAT at Palomar.
Marco
Langbroek (b. 1970) is a Dutch archaeologist and amateur astronomer
whose
main interests lie in meteor astronomy. He is an avid meteor observer,
active
within the Dutch Meteor Society. The name was suggested by S.
Kürti.
Asteroid
(183294) Langbroek
was discovered on images taken at Mt. Palomar on 9 October 2002 with
the 1.2m Schmidt
telescope of the NEAT project. Below is a stack of the three 60 second
exposure CCD images, showing the asteroid as three dots on a line
(because it moved inbetween each image, which were taken at
approximately 20 minute intervals at 09:09:16 UTC, 09:27:39 UTC and
09:47:56 UTC):
Here is a blink of (a part of) the
same discovery triplet showing the small object as a moving "star"
(images
by NEAT):
Asteroid (183294)
Langbroek is a
main belt asteroid orbiting between the planets Mars and Jupiter. It
has an estimated size of approximately 2.5 kilometer and an
orbital period of 5.3 years. It's orbital
elements are as follows:
a
= 3.03823 AU
q
= 2.68679 AU
Q = 3.38967 AU
e
= 0.11567
i
= 6.33600 deg
omega
= 191.04333 deg
node
= 106.06099 deg
H
= 15.6
(epoch
2454800.5)
Dutch amateur astronomer Klaas Jobse recently imaged (183294)
Langbroek. The animated .gif below (image courtesy of Klaas Jobse) was
created from images he otained on 30 December 2008 with his 30 cm
telescope. The object is faint but visible as a moving object!
Below
is a plot of the orbit of (183294)
Langbroek. For
an interactive 3D orbital diagram (JPL
website) of (183294) Langbroek, click here.
