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50719 Elizabethgriffin (provisional designation 2000 EG₁₄₀) is a stony Maria asteroid and exceptionally slow rotator from the central region of the asteroid belt, approximately 3.3 kilometers (2.1 miles) in diameter. It was discovered on 1 March 2000, by astronomers with the Catalina Sky Survey at Mount Lemmon Observatory, Arizona, United States. It was named for Canadian astronomer Elizabeth Griffin.

Classification and orbit

The stony S-type asteroid is a member of the Maria family (506), located in the Eunomia region in the intermediate main-belt. It orbits the Sun in the central main-belt at a distance of 2.2–2.9 AU once every 4 years and 2 months (1,517 days; semi-major axis of 2.58 AU). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.13 and an inclination of 14° with respect to the ecliptic. A first precovery was taken at Lowell Observatory (LONEOS) in 1998, extending the asteroid's observation arc by 2 years prior to its discovery.

Numbering and naming

This minor planet was numbered by the Minor Planet Center on 20 November 2002. It was named after Elizabeth Griffin (born 1942) a Canadian astronomer who studies binary stars spectroscopically. She has been an advocate for the preservation and digitization of astronomic photographic plates. The official naming citation was published by the Minor Planet Center on 6 April 2019 (M.P.C. 112432).

Physical characteristics

Slow rotator

In August 2010, a rotational lightcurve of Elizabethgriffin was obtained from photometric observations by astronomers at the Palomar Transient Factory in California. It gave an exceptionally long rotation period of 1256 hours with a brightness variation of 0.42 magnitude (U=2). This makes the asteroid the 5th slowest rotating minor planet known to exist.

Diameter and albedo

According to the surveys carried out by the NEOWISE mission of NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, Elizabethgriffin measures 3.3 kilometers in diameter and its surface has an albedo of 0.37, while the Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link assumes a standard albedo for stony asteroids of 0.21 and calculates a diameter of 3.4 kilometers with an absolute magnitude of 14.65.

References

1. ^ "50719 (2000 EG140)". Minor Planet Center. Retrieved 9 April 2019.
2. ^ "JPL Small-Body Database Browser: 50719 (2000 EG140)" (2018-09-17 last obs.). Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Retrieved 9 April 2019.
3. ^ "Asteroid 50719 Elizabethgriffin". Small Bodies Data Ferret. Retrieved 9 April 2019.
4. ^ "Asteroid (50719) Elizabethgriffin – Proper elements". AstDyS-2, Asteroids – Dynamic Site. Retrieved 9 April 2019.
5. ^ 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.
6. ^ Masiero, Joseph R.; Mainzer, A. K.; Grav, T.; Bauer, J. M.; Cutri, R. M.; Dailey, J.; et al. (November 2011). "Main Belt Asteroids with WISE/NEOWISE. I. Preliminary Albedos and Diameters". The Astrophysical Journal. 741 (2): 20. arXiv:1109.4096. Bibcode:2011ApJ...741...68M. doi:10.1088/0004-637X/741/2/68.
7. ^ Waszczak, Adam; Chang, Chan-Kao; Ofek, Eran O.; Laher, Russ; Masci, Frank; Levitan, David; et al. (September 2015). "Asteroid Light Curves from the Palomar Transient Factory Survey: Rotation Periods and Phase Functions from Sparse Photometry". The Astronomical Journal. 150 (3): 35. arXiv:1504.04041. Bibcode:2015AJ....150...75W. doi:10.1088/0004-6256/150/3/75.
8. ^ "LCDB Data for (50719)". Asteroid Lightcurve Database (LCDB). Retrieved 3 September 2016.
9. ^ "MPC/MPO/MPS Archive". Minor Planet Center. Retrieved 9 April 2019.

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 (50001)-(55000) – Minor Planet Center
• 50719 Elizabethgriffin at AstDyS-2, Asteroids—Dynamic Site
  • Ephemeris · Observation prediction · Orbital info · Proper elements · Observational info
• 50719 Elizabethgriffin at the JPL Small-Body Database
  • Close approach · Discovery · Ephemeris · Orbit viewer · Orbit parameters · Physical parameters

• Minor planet object articles (numbered)
• Maria asteroids
• Eunomia asteroids
• Discoveries by the Catalina Sky Survey
• Named minor planets
• Slow rotating minor planets
• Astronomical objects discovered in 2000