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2554 Skiff, provisional designation 1980 OB, is a Florian asteroid from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 7 kilometers (4.3 miles) in diameter. It was discovered on 17 July 1980, by American astronomer Edward Bowell at Lowell's Anderson Mesa Station near Flagstaff, Arizona. The presumed S-type asteroid has a rotation period of 25.6 hours and was named after astronomer Brian Skiff.

Orbit and classification

Skiff is a member of the Flora family (402), a giant asteroid family and the largest family of stony asteroids in the main-belt. Based on an alternative HCM-classification, the Asteroid Dynamic Site groups this asteroid to the core members of the Levin family, a proposed Florian subfamily of 1145 bodies which is named after its parent body 2076 Levin.

It orbits the Sun in the inner main-belt at a distance of 1.9–2.6 AU once every 3 years and 5 months (1,244 days; semi-major axis of 2.26 AU). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.14 and an inclination of 5° with respect to the ecliptic. The asteroid was first observed as 1931 AB at Heidelberg Observatory in January 1931. The body's observation arc begins with a precovery taken at Palomar Observatory in June 1953, more than 27 years prior to its official discovery observation at Anderson Mesa.

Physical characteristics

Skiff is an assumed stony S-type asteroid, which is also the overall spectral type of the Flora family.

Rotation period

In August 2014, a rotational lightcurve of Skiff was obtained from photometric observations by Italian astronomers at the Franco Fuligni Observatory near Rome. It gave a provisional rotation period of 25.6 hours with a brightness amplitude of 0.32 in magnitude (U=1).

Diameter and albedo

According to the surveys carried out by the Japanese Akari satellite and the NEOWISE mission of NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, Skiff measures between 6.005 and 8.56 kilometers in diameter and its surface has an albedo between 0.153 and 0.4489.

The Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link assumes an albedo of 0.24 – derived from 8 Flora, the Flora family's parent body – and calculates a diameter of 7.82 kilometers based on an absolute magnitude of 12.7.

Naming

This minor planet was named in honor of American astronomer Brian Skiff, discoverer more than 50 asteroids. He significantly contributed to Lowell's asteroid astrometry program, including the rediscovery of the 800-meter potentially hazardous object 69230 Hermes, a long-lost asteroid. The official naming citation was published by the Minor Planet Center on 8 April 1982 (M.P.C. 6834).

References

1. ^ "2554 Skiff (1980 OB)". Minor Planet Center. Retrieved 14 April 2018.
2. ^ "JPL Small-Body Database Browser: 2554 Skiff (1980 OB)" (2017-11-02 last obs.). Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Retrieved 14 April 2018.
3. ^ "Asteroid 2554 Skiff – Nesvorny HCM Asteroid Families V3.0". Small Bodies Data Ferret. Retrieved 26 October 2019.
4. ^ "LCDB Data for (2554) Skiff". Asteroid Lightcurve Database (LCDB). Retrieved 14 April 2018.
5. ^ "(2554) Skiff". AstDys – Asteroids Dynamic Site. University of Pisa. Retrieved 14 April 2018.
6. ^ Milani, Andrea; Cellino, Alberto; Knezevic, Zoran; Novakovic, Bojan; Spoto, Federica; Paolicchi, Paolo (September 2014). "Asteroid families classification: Exploiting very large datasets". Icarus. 239: 46–73. arXiv:1312.7702. Bibcode:2014Icar..239...46M. doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2014.05.039.
7. ^ Masiero, Joseph R.; Grav, T.; Mainzer, A. K.; Nugent, C. R.; Bauer, J. M.; Stevenson, R.; et al. (August 2014). "Main-belt Asteroids with WISE/NEOWISE: Near-infrared Albedos". The Astrophysical Journal. 791 (2): 11. arXiv:1406.6645. Bibcode:2014ApJ...791..121M. doi:10.1088/0004-637X/791/2/121.
8. ^ Nugent, C. R.; Mainzer, A.; Masiero, J.; Bauer, J.; Cutri, R. M.; Grav, T.; et al. (December 2015). "NEOWISE Reactivation Mission Year One: Preliminary Asteroid Diameters and Albedos". The Astrophysical Journal. 814 (2): 13. arXiv:1509.02522. Bibcode:2015ApJ...814..117N. doi:10.1088/0004-637X/814/2/117.
9. ^ Mainzer, A.; Grav, T.; Masiero, J.; Hand, E.; Bauer, J.; Tholen, D.; et al. (November 2011). "NEOWISE Studies of Spectrophotometrically Classified Asteroids: Preliminary Results". The Astrophysical Journal. 741 (2): 25. arXiv:1109.6407. Bibcode:2011ApJ...741...90M. doi:10.1088/0004-637X/741/2/90.
10. ^ Usui, Fumihiko; Kuroda, Daisuke; Müller, Thomas G.; Hasegawa, Sunao; Ishiguro, Masateru; Ootsubo, Takafumi; et al. (October 2011). "Asteroid Catalog Using Akari: AKARI/IRC Mid-Infrared Asteroid Survey". Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan. 63 (5): 1117–1138. Bibcode:2011PASJ...63.1117U. doi:10.1093/pasj/63.5.1117. (online, AcuA catalog p. 153)
11. ^ Tomassini, Angelo; Scardella, Maurizio; Zampetti, Fabio (April 2015). "Rotation Period Determination of 2554 Skiff and 3107 Weaver". The Minor Planet Bulletin. 42 (2): 100–101. Bibcode:2015MPBu...42..100T. ISSN 1052-8091.
12. Veres, Peter; Jedicke, Robert; Fitzsimmons, Alan; Denneau, Larry; Granvik, Mikael; Bolin, Bryce; et al. (November 2015). "Absolute magnitudes and slope parameters for 250,000 asteroids observed by Pan-STARRS PS1 - Preliminary results". Icarus. 261: 34–47. arXiv:1506.00762. Bibcode:2015Icar..261...34V. doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2015.08.007.
13. ^ Nesvorný, D.; Broz, M.; Carruba, V. (December 2014). "Identification and Dynamical Properties of Asteroid Families". Asteroids IV. pp. 297–321. arXiv:1502.01628. Bibcode:2015aste.book..297N. doi:10.2458/azu_uapress_9780816532131-ch016. ISBN 9780816532131.
14. "MPC/MPO/MPS Archive". Minor Planet Center. Retrieved 14 April 2018.

External links

• Asteroid Lightcurve Database (LCDB), query form (info Archived 16 December 2017 at the Wayback Machine)
• Dictionary of Minor Planet Names, Google books
• Asteroids and comets rotation curves, CdR – Observatoire de Genève, Raoul Behrend
• Discovery Circumstances: Numbered Minor Planets (1)-(5000) – Minor Planet Center
• 2554 Skiff at AstDyS-2, Asteroids—Dynamic Site
  • Ephemeris · Observation prediction · Orbital info · Proper elements · Observational info
• 2554 Skiff at the JPL Small-Body Database
  • Close approach · Discovery · Ephemeris · Orbit viewer · Orbit parameters · Physical parameters

• Minor planet object articles (numbered)
• Flora asteroids
• Discoveries by Edward L. G. Bowell
• Named minor planets
• Astronomical objects discovered in 1980