2575 Bulgaria

Template:Short description {{#invoke:other uses|otheruses}} Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox planet

2575 Bulgaria, provisional designation Template:Mp, is a stony Florian asteroid from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 7 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 4 August 1970, by Russian astronomer Tamara Smirnova at the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory in Nauchnyj, on the Crimean peninsula.<ref name="MPC-Bulgaria" /> It was named for country Bulgaria.<ref name="springer" />

Classification and orbit

Bulgaria is a member of the Flora family, one of the largest groups of stony asteroids in the main-belt. It orbits the Sun in the inner main-belt at a distance of 2.0–2.5 AU once every 3 years and 4 months (1,225 days). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.12 and an inclination of 5° with respect to the ecliptic.<ref name="jpldata" />

Physical characteristics

In the SMASS taxonomy, Bulgaria has been classified as a Sr-type, which transitions from common S-type asteroids to the rather rare R-type asteroids.<ref name="jpldata" />

Bulgaria has a rotation period of 8.6 hours<ref name="Waszczak-2015" /> and an albedo of 0.24, as assumed by the Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link.<ref name="lcdb" />

Naming

This minor planet was named after the European country Bulgaria. At the time of naming, it was the People's Republic of Bulgaria (1946–1990), a former satellite state of the Soviet Union and member of the Warsaw Pact.<ref name="springer" /> The official naming citation was published by the Minor Planet Center on 13 July 1984 (Template:Small).<ref name="MPC-Circulars-Archive" />

External links

• 2575 Bulgaria in NASA's Planetary Data System
• Asteroid Lightcurve Database (LCDB), query form (info Template:Webarchive)
• 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
• Template:AstDys
• Template:JPL small body