2829 Bobhope

2829 Bobhope (prov. designation: Template:Mp) is a dark asteroid of the Meliboea family, from the outer region of the asteroid belt. It was discovered on 9 August 1948, by South African astronomer Ernest Leonard Johnson at Union Observatory in Johannesburg.<ref name="MPC-Bobhope" /> The asteroid was later named after comedian Bob Hope.<ref name="springer" /> The asteroid has a rotation period of 6.1 hours and measures approximately Template:Convert in diameter.

Orbit and classification

Bobhope is a member of the Meliboea family,<ref name="Ferret" /> a smaller asteroid family of carbonaceous outer-belt asteroids with a few hundred members, named after 137 Meliboea.<ref name="Nesvorny-2014" />Template:Rp It orbits the Sun in the outer main-belt at a distance of 2.5–3.7 AU once every 5 years and 5 months (1,985 days). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.19 and an inclination of 14° with respect to the ecliptic.<ref name="jpldata" /> It was first observed as Template:Mp at the discovering observatory in May 1942, yet the astrometric data from this observation remained unused to extend its observation arc prior to the official discovery date.<ref name="MPC-Bobhope" />

Naming

This minor planet was named for English-born, American comedian Bob Hope (1903–2003), star of innumerable feature film, theater, TV and radio productions, and known for the horror comedy Cat and the Canary (1939).<ref name="springer" /> He hosted the Academy Awards more than any other host, and received several Honorary and Special Oscars himself. Hope also received more than forty honorary doctorates.<ref name="springer" /> The Template:MoMP was published by the Minor Planet Center on 1 September 1993 (Template:Small).<ref name="MPC-Circulars-Archive" />

Physical characteristics

Bobhope has been characterized as a carbonaceous C-type asteroid,<ref name="lcdb" /> which agrees with the overall spectral type of the Meliboea family.<ref name="Nesvorny-2014" />Template:Rp

Rotation period

A rotational lightcurve of Bobhope was obtained from photometric observations by astronomer Landy Carbo at Oakley Southern Sky Observatory Template:Obscode, Australia, and at the U.S. Oakley Observatory in September 2008. It gave it a rotation period of Template:Val hours with a brightness variation of Template:Val magnitude (Template:Small).<ref name="Carbo-2009a" /> A previously published lightcurve by French amateur astronomer Bernard Christophe gave a somewhat longer period of Template:Val hours with an amplitude of 0.50 (Template:Small).<ref name="geneva-obs" />

Diameter and albedo

According to the surveys carried out by the Infrared Astronomical Satellite IRAS, the Japanese Akari satellite, and NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer with its subsequent NEOWISE mission, Bobhope measures between 32.14 and 40.98 kilometers in diameter and its surface has an albedo between 0.05 and 0.0916.<ref name="Nugent-2015" /><ref name="Nugent-2016" /><ref name="SIMPS" /><ref name="Masiero-2012" /><ref name="AKARI" /> More dated NEOWISE publications gave a larger diameter of 41.361 and 44.8 kilometers, respectively.<ref name="Masiero-2014" /><ref name="WISE" /> The Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link derives an albedo of 0.0586 and a diameter of 38.0 kilometers with an absolute magnitude of 10.8.<ref name="lcdb" />

External links

• Lightcurve Database Query (LCDB), at www.minorplanet.info
• Dictionary of Minor Planet Names, Google books
• Asteroids and comets rotation curves, CdR – Geneva Observatory, Raoul Behrend
• Discovery Circumstances: Numbered Minor Planets (1)-(5000) – Minor Planet Center
• Template:AstDys
• Template:JPL small body