12621 Alsufi
| Discovery | |
|---|---|
| Discovered by |
C. J. van Houten I. van Houten-G. Tom Gehrels |
| Discovery site | Palomar Obs. |
| Discovery date | 24 September 1960 |
| Designations | |
| MPC designation | (12621) Alsufi |
|
Named after
|
Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi (astronomer) |
| 6585 P-L · 1997 JJ12 | |
| main-belt · Themis | |
| Orbital characteristics | |
| Epoch 16 February 2017 (JD 2457800.5) | |
| Uncertainty parameter 0 | |
| Observation arc | 55.36 yr (20,219 days) |
| Aphelion | 3.5152 AU |
| Perihelion | 2.6981 AU |
| 3.1067 AU | |
| Eccentricity | 0.1315 |
| 5.48 yr (2,000 days) | |
| 106.06° | |
| 0° 10m 48s / day | |
| Inclination | 2.4308° |
| 148.06° | |
| 204.39° | |
| Physical characteristics | |
| Dimensions | 6.76 km (calculated) |
| 4.7194±0.0024 h | |
| 0.08 (assumed) | |
| L · C | |
| 13.9 · 13.91±0.26 · 13.761±0.014 (R) · 14.21 | |
12621 Alsufi, provisionally designated 6585 P-L, is a carbonaceous Themistian asteroid from the outer region of the asteroid belt, approximately 7 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered by astronomers during the Palomar–Leiden survey in 1960, and named for medieval Persian astronomer Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi.
Alsufi was discovered on 24 September 1960, by Dutch astronomer couple Ingrid and Cornelis van Houten at Leiden, on photographic plates taken by Dutch–American astronomer Tom Gehrels at the U.S. Palomar Observatory, California. No precoveries were taken prior to its discovery observation.
The survey designation "P-L" stands for Palomar–Leiden, named after Palomar Observatory and Leiden Observatory, which collaborated on the fruitful Palomar–Leiden survey in the 1960s. 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 minor planets.
It is a member of the Themis family, a dynamical group of outer-belt asteroids with nearly coplanar ecliptical orbits. The C-type asteroid is also classified as a rather rare L-type asteroid by Pan-STARRS' large-scale survey. It orbits the Sun at a distance of 2.7–3.5 AU once every 5 years and 6 months (2,000 days). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.13 and an inclination of 2° with respect to the ecliptic.
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