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7336 Saunders, provisional designation 1989 RS₁, is a stony asteroid and near-Earth object of the Amor group, approximately 0.5 kilometers in diameter.

The asteroid was discovered on 6 September 1989, by American astronomer Eleanor Helin at Palomar Observatory in California, United States. It was named for JPL-project scientist R. Stephen Saunders.

Orbit and classification

Saunders orbits the Sun at a distance of 1.2–3.4 AU once every 3 years and 6 months (1,278 days). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.48 and an inclination of 7° with respect to the ecliptic.

A first precovery was taken at the Australian Siding Spring Observatory in 1982, extending the body's observation arc by 7 years prior to its official discovery at Palomar. It has a minimum orbital intersection distance with Earth of 0.1908 AU (28,500,000 km), which corresponds to 74.3 lunar distances.

Physical characteristics

In the SMASS classification, Saunders is a Sq-type, which transitions from the common S-type to the Q-type asteroids. The Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link assumes a standard albedo for stony asteroids of 0.20 and derives a diameter of 467 meters, based on an absolute magnitude of 19.02.

Lightcurve

In October 1989, the first photometric observations of Saunders were made with the ESO 1-metre telescope at La Silla in Chile. It gave a rotation period of 6 hours with a brightness variation of 0.3 magnitude (U=2). Another rotational lightcurve was obtained by Czech astronomer Petr Pravec at Ondřejov Observatory in August 2003, giving a period of 6.423±0.004 and an amplitude of 0.2 magnitude (U=n.a.).

Naming

This minor planet was named in honor of JPL-project scientist R. Stephen Saunders (born 1940), director of the RPIF and head scientist of the Solar System Exploration Office. He worked on the Mars Surveyor 2001/03 program and on the Magellan spacecraft, that visited and mapped Venus in 1990. The official naming citation was published by the Minor Planet Center on 26 July 2000 (M.P.C. 41028).

Notes

1. ^ Pravec (2003): rotation period 6.423±0.004 hours with a brightness amplitude of 0.2 mag. Summary figures for (7336) Saunders at Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link (CALL) and Pravec, P.; Wolf, M.; Sarounova, L. (2003)

References

1. ^ "JPL Small-Body Database Browser: 7336 Saunders (1989 RS1)" (2017-06-05 last obs.). Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Retrieved 22 June 2017.
2. ^ Schmadel, Lutz D. (2007). "(7336) Saunders". Dictionary of Minor Planet Names – (7336) Saunders. Springer Berlin Heidelberg. p. 591. doi:10.1007/978-3-540-29925-7_6435. ISBN 978-3-540-00238-3.
3. ^ "7336 Saunders (1989 RS1)". Minor Planet Center. Retrieved 26 September 2016.
4. ^ "LCDB Data for (7336) Saunders". Asteroid Lightcurve Database (LCDB). Retrieved 26 September 2016.
5. ^ Hoffmann, Martin; Rebhan, Helge; Neukum, Gerhard; Geyer, Edward H. (January 1993). "Photometric observations of four near-earth asteroids". Acta Astronomica. 43: 61–67. Bibcode:1993AcA....43...61H. ISSN 0001-5237. Retrieved 26 September 2016.
6. Pravec, Petr; Harris, Alan W.; Kusnirák, Peter; Galád, Adrián; Hornoch, Kamil (September 2012). "Absolute magnitudes of asteroids and a revision of asteroid albedo estimates from WISE thermal observations". Icarus. 221 (1): 365–387. Bibcode:2012Icar..221..365P. doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2012.07.026. Retrieved 26 September 2016.
7. "MPC/MPO/MPS Archive". Minor Planet Center. Retrieved 26 September 2016.

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
• 7336 Saunders at NeoDyS-2, Near Earth Objects—Dynamic Site
  • Ephemerides · Observation prediction · Orbital info · MOID · Proper elements · Observational info · Close approaches · Physical info · Orbit animation
• 7336 Saunders at ESA–space situational awareness
  • Ephemerides · Observations · Orbit · Physical properties · Summary
• 7336 Saunders at the JPL Small-Body Database
  • Close approach · Discovery · Ephemeris · Orbit viewer · Orbit parameters · Physical parameters

• Minor planet object articles (numbered)
• Amor asteroids
• Discoveries by Eleanor F. Helin
• Named minor planets
• Sq-type asteroids (SMASS)
• Astronomical objects discovered in 1989