From Handwiki - Reading time: 4 min| Discovery [1] | |
|---|---|
| Discovered by | E. W. Elst |
| Discovery site | La Silla Obs. |
| Discovery date | 2 March 1989 |
| Designations | |
| (6189) Völk | |
| Named after | Elisabeth Völk (ESO staff member)[2] |
| 1989 EY2 · 1980 TY4 5489 T-2 | |
| Minor planet category | main-belt [1][3] · (inner) Vesta [4][5][6] |
| Orbital characteristics [3] | |
| Epoch 31 May 2020 (JD 2459000.5) | |
| Uncertainty parameter 0 | |
| Observation arc | 46.34 yr (16,926 d) |
| |{{{apsis}}}|helion}} | 2.6157 AU |
| |{{{apsis}}}|helion}} | 1.9938 AU |
| 2.3048 AU | |
| Eccentricity | 0.1349 |
| Orbital period | 3.50 yr (1,278 d) |
| Mean anomaly | 164.96° |
| Mean motion | 0° 16m 54.12s / day |
| Inclination | 5.9423° |
| Longitude of ascending node | 245.32° |
| 68.736° | |
| Physical characteristics | |
| Mean diameter | 3.982±0.156 km[7] |
| Rotation period | 2.896±0.001 h[8][lower-alpha 1] |
| Geometric albedo | 0.443±0.079[7] |
| S (SDSS-MOC)[9] | |
| Absolute magnitude (H) | |
6189 Völk (prov. designation: 1989 EY2) is a stony Vesta asteroid, approximately 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) in diameter, located in the inner regions of the asteroid belt. It was discovered on 2 March 1989, by Belgian astronomer Eric Elst at the La Silla Observatory in northern Chile.[1] The S-type asteroid has a short rotation period of 2.9 hours. It was named for Elisabeth Völk, a staff member at ESO headquarters in Germany.[2]
When applying the synthetic hierarchical clustering method to its proper orbital elements, Völk is a core member of the stony Vesta family,[4][5][6] one of the largest families in the inner asteroid belt. It orbits the Sun in the inner main-belt at a distance of 2.0–2.6 AU once every 3 years and 6 months (1,278 days; semi-major axis of 2.3 AU). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.13 and an inclination of 6° with respect to the ecliptic.[3] It was first observed as 5489 T-2 at Palomar Observatory during the second Palomar–Leiden Trojan survey in September 1973, extending the asteroid's observation arc by almost 16 years prior to its official discovery at La Silla.[1]
This minor planet was named after Elisabeth Völk (born 1946), administrative staff member at ESO's headquarters in Germany, in charge of the ESO Schmidt plates archive, who became a good friend of the discoverer. The naming was independently suggested by astronomer and author of the Dictionary of Minor Planets, Lutz Schmadel.[2] The naming citation was published by the Minor Planet Center on 15 February 1995 (M.P.C. 24766).[10]
In the SDSS-based taxonomy, Völk is a common, stony S-type asteroid.[9]
In September 2015, a rotational lightcurve was constructed from photometric observations by Robert D. Stephens at the Center for Solar System Studies in California (U81). Lightcurve analysis gave a well-defined rotation period of 2.896±0.001 hours with a brightness amplitude of 0.18±0.02 in magnitude ({{{1}}}).[8][lower-alpha 1]
According to the survey carried out by the NEOWISE mission of NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, the asteroid measures (3.982±0.156) kilometers in diameter and its surface has an outstandingly high albedo of (0.443±0.079),[7] while the Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link assumes an albedo of 0.24 – in accordance with the LCDB's divergent classification into the Flora family – and calculates a larger diameter of 5.2 kilometers.[11]