1428 Mombasa, provisional designation 1937 NO, is a dark asteroid from the middle region of the asteroid belt, approximately 56 kilometers in diameter.
It was discovered on 5 July 1937, by English-born South African astronomer Cyril Jackson at Johannesburg Observatory, South Africa, and later named after Mombasa, Kenya.[2][14]
Mombasa orbits the Sun at a distance of 2.4–3.2 AU once every 4 years and 9 months (1,720 days). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.14 and an inclination of 17° with respect to the ecliptic.[1]Mombasa was first identified as 1933 WO at Lowell Observatory, extending the body's observation arc by 4 years prior to its official discovery at Johannesburg.[14]
Physical characteristics
Rotation period
American astronomer Robert Stephens obtained a rotational lightcurve of Mombasa in June 2012. Light-curve analysis gave a rotation period of 16.67 hours with a brightness variation of 0.16 magnitude ({{{1}}}).[lower-alpha 1] Previous lightcurves were obtained by French amateur astronomer René Roy in February 2006 (17.6 hours, Δ0.15 mag; {{{1}}}),[12] as well as by Scot Hawkins and Richard Ditteon at Oakley Observatory in May 2007 (17.12 hours, Δ0.25 mag; {{{1}}}).[11]
↑ 4.04.14.2Nugent, C. R.; Mainzer, A.; Bauer, J.; Cutri, R. M.; Kramer, E. A.; Grav, T. et al. (September 2016). "NEOWISE Reactivation Mission Year Two: Asteroid Diameters and Albedos". The Astronomical Journal152 (3): 12. doi:10.3847/0004-6256/152/3/63. Bibcode: 2016AJ....152...63N.
↑ 5.05.15.2Usui, Fumihiko; Kuroda, Daisuke; Müller, Thomas G.; Hasegawa, Sunao; Ishiguro, Masateru; Ootsubo, Takafumi et al. (October 2011). "Asteroid Catalog Using Akari: AKARI/IRC Mid-Infrared Asteroid Survey". Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan63 (5): 1117–1138. doi:10.1093/pasj/63.5.1117. Bibcode: 2011PASJ...63.1117U. (online, AcuA catalog p. 153)