2062 Aten

2062 Aten Template:IPAc-en,Template:Efn provisional designation Template:Mp, is a stony sub-kilometer asteroid and namesake of the Aten asteroids, a subgroup of near-Earth objects. The asteroid was named after Aten from Egyptian mythology.

It was discovered on 7 January 1976, at the Palomar Observatory by American astronomer Eleanor Helin,<ref name="MPC-Aten" /> who was the principal scientist for the NEAT project until her retirement in 2002. The S-type asteroid measures approximately 900 meters in diameter, has a longer-than average rotation period of 44.77 hours, and approaches the orbit Earth to 44.1 lunar distances.

Orbit and classification

Aten orbits the Sun at a distance of 0.8–1.1 AU once every 11 months (347 days). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.18 and an inclination of 19° with respect to the ecliptic.<ref name="jpldata" /> A first precovery was taken at the discovering observatory in December 1955, extending the body's observation arc by more than 20 years prior to its official discovery observation.<ref name="MPC-Aten" />

Namesake of the Aten group

Aten was the first asteroid found to have a semi-major orbital axis of less than one astronomical unit and a period of less than one year.<ref name="springer" /> A new category of asteroids was thus created, the Atens. As of 2017, the group consists of more than 1,200 numbered members. Other groups of near-Earth objects (NEOs) are the Apollo and Amor asteroids, which are both significantly larger than the Atens, while the Atira asteroids form the smallest NEO-group by far.<ref name="CNEOS-Discovery-Statistics" />

Close approaches

The asteroid has an Earth minimum orbit intersection distance of Template:Convert which corresponds to 44.1 lunar distances.<ref name="jpldata" />

Physical characteristics

In the Tholen classification, Aten is a common S-type asteroid. In the SMASS taxonomy it is classified as an Sr-type, a subtype which transitions to the R-type asteroids.<ref name="jpldata" />

Lightcurve

In the 1990s, Italian astronomer Stefano Mottola obtained a rotational lightcurve of Aten during the EUNEASO survey at La Silla, which was a European near-Earth object search and follow-up observation program to determine additional physical parameters. Lightcurve analysis gave a longer-than average rotation period of 40.77 hours with a brightness variation of 0.26 magnitude (Template:Small).<ref name="Mottola-1995a" /> No additional lightcurves have been obtained since.<ref name="lcdb" />

Diameter and albedo

According to the survey carried out by NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer with its subsequent NEOWISE mission, Aten measures between 700 and 830 meters in diameter and its surface has a high albedo between 0.39 and 0.52.<ref name="Nugent-2016" /><ref name="Nugent-2015" />

in 1994, Tom Gehrels published a diameter of 1.1 kilometers and an albedo of 0.26 in his book Hazards Due to Comets and Asteroids.<ref name="jpldata" /><ref name="Gehrels-1994" /> The Warm Spitzer NEO survey ("ExploreNEOs") gives a diameter of 1.3 kilometers with an albedo of 0.20.<ref name="Harris-2011" />

The Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link agrees with a revised thermal model for asteroid diameters and albedos, and adopts an albedo of 0.28 with a diameter of 0.91 kilometers based on an absolute magnitude of 17.2.<ref name="Harris-1998a" /><ref name="lcdb" /> However, the Minor Planet Center (MPC) classifies Aten as a larger (greater than 1 km) object.<ref name="MPC-Aten" />

Naming

This minor planet was named from Egyptian mythology after Aten, the ancient Egyptian god of the solar disk, originally an aspect of the god Ra.<ref name="springer" /> The official Template:MoMP was published by the Minor Planet Center on 1 August 1978 (Template:Small).<ref name="DoMP-Circular-dates" />

References

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