18610 Arthurdent
| Discovery | |
|---|---|
| Discovered by | Starkenburg Obs. |
| Discovery site | Starkenburg Obs. |
| Discovery date | 7 February 1998 |
| Designations | |
| MPC designation | 18610 Arthurdent |
|
Named after
|
Arthur Dent (The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy) |
| 1998 CC2 · 1990 EG3 | |
| main-belt · (middle) | |
| Orbital characteristics | |
| Epoch 16 February 2017 (JD 2457800.5) | |
| Uncertainty parameter 0 | |
| Observation arc | 27.84 yr (10,167 days) |
| Aphelion | 3.0933 AU |
| Perihelion | 2.0015 AU |
| 2.5474 AU | |
| Eccentricity | 0.2143 |
| 4.07 yr (1,485 days) | |
| 273.28° | |
| 0° 14m 32.64s / day | |
| Inclination | 5.5883° |
| 319.49° | |
| 139.43° | |
| Physical characteristics | |
| Dimensions |
3.463±0.055 4±1 km (est. at 0.20) |
| 0.234±0.020 | |
| 14.3 | |
18610 Arthurdent, provisional designation 1998 CC2, is an asteroid from the middle region of the asteroid belt, approximately 3.5 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered by a team of German astronomers including Felix Hormuth at Starkenburg Observatory in Heppenheim on 7 February 1998. It is named after Arthur Dent from Douglas Adams's Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series.
The asteroid orbits the Sun at a distance of 2.0–3.1 AU once every 4 years and 1 month (1,485 days). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.21 and an inclination of 6° with respect to the ecliptic. The first known precovery image was taken during the Digitized Sky Survey (DSS) at Palomar Observatory in 1988, extending the asteroid's observation arc by 10 years prior to its discovery.
According to the survey carried out by NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer with its subsequent NEOWISE mission, Arthurdent measures 3.5 kilometers in diameter and its surface has an albedo of 0.234. Inner main-belt asteroids with such an albedo are typically of a silicaceous rather than of a carbonaceous composition. Based on an absolute magnitude of 14.3 and a generic albedo in the range of 0.05 to 0.25, the asteroid measures between 3 and 8 kilometers in diameter. As of 2016, the asteroid's composition, rotation period and shape remain unknown.
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