3325 TARDIS
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3325 TARDIS (provisional designation: Template:Mp) is a dark Alauda asteroid from the outer region of the asteroid belt, approximately Template:Convert in diameter. It was discovered on 3 May 1984, by American astronomer Brian Skiff at Lowell's Anderson Mesa Station, Arizona, in the United States.<ref name="MPC-TARDIS" /> The asteroid was named TARDIS, after the fictional time machine and spacecraft from the science fiction television series Doctor Who.<ref name="springer" />
Orbit and classification
TARDIS is a member of the Alauda family (Template:Small),<ref name="Ferret" /> a large family of typically bright carbonaceous asteroids and named after its parent body, 702 Alauda.<ref name="Nesvorny-2014" />Template:Rp
It orbits the Sun in the outer main-belt at a distance of 3.1–3.2 AU once every 5 years and 8 months (2,076 days). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.01 and an inclination of 22° with respect to the ecliptic.<ref name="jpldata" /> In 1958 it was first identified as Template:Mp at the Goethe Link Observatory, extending the body's observation arc by 26 years prior to its official discovery at Anderson Mesa.<ref name="MPC-TARDIS" />
Naming
It is named after the acronym TARDIS (Time And Relative Dimension In Space), the space and time travel vehicle used by the Doctor in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. The fictional time machine looks like a police telephone box from mid-twentieth century Britain.<ref name="springer" /> The official naming citation was published by the Minor Planet Center on 11 March 1990 (Template:Small).<ref name="MPC-Circulars-Archive" />
Physical characteristics
According to the survey carried out by the Infrared Astronomical Satellite IRAS and NASA's NEOWISE mission, TARDIS measures 28.2 and 29.7 kilometers in diameter, and its surface has a low albedo of 0.055 and 0.067, respectively.<ref name="Masiero-2014" /><ref name="SIMPS" /> An albedo between 0.05 and 0.06 is typical for carbonaceous asteroids of the outer main-belt. As of 2016, no rotational lightcurves have been obtained and the asteroid's period and shape still remains unknown.
References
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
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