3240 Laocoon
| Discovery | |
|---|---|
| Discovered by |
E. F. Helin S. J. Bus |
| Discovery site | Palomar Obs. |
| Discovery date | 7 November 1978 |
| Designations | |
| MPC designation | 3240 Laocoon |
| Pronunciation |
leɪˈɒkoʊɒn (lay-ok'-oe-on) |
|
Named after
|
Laocoön (Greek mythology) |
|
1978 VG6 · 1976 SA9 1976 SL2 · 1978 WS12 |
|
|
Jupiter trojan (Trojan camp) |
|
| Orbital characteristics | |
| Epoch 16 February 2017 (JD 2457800.5) | |
| Uncertainty parameter 0 | |
| Observation arc | 40.11 yr (14,651 days) |
| Aphelion | 5.8988 AU |
| Perihelion | 4.5750 AU |
| 5.2369 AU | |
| Eccentricity | 0.1264 |
| 11.98 yr (4,377 days) | |
| 171.35° | |
| 0° 4m 55.92s / day | |
| Inclination | 2.3343° |
| 296.28° | |
| 15.540° | |
| Jupiter MOID | 0.3117 AU |
| Jupiter Tisserand parameter | 2.9820 |
| Physical characteristics | |
| Dimensions | 50.77 km (calculated) 51.69±0.25 km 51.695±0.252 km |
| 11.312±0.024 h | |
| 0.057 (assumed) 0.060±0.014 |
|
| D · C | |
| 9.95±0.32 · 10.1 · 10.2 | |
3240 Laocoon (LAY-ok'-OE-on), provisional designation 1978 VG6, is a carbonaceous Jupiter trojan from the Trojan camp, approximately 51 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 7 November 1978, by American astronomers Eleanor Helin and Schelte Bus at the U.S. Palomar Observatory in California.
The C-type asteroid is also classified as a D-type by Pan-STARRS' large-scale survey. It resides in the Trojan camp of Jupiter's L5 Lagrangian point, which lies 60° behind the gas giant's orbit, and orbits the Sun at a distance of 4.6–5.9 AU once every 11 years and 12 months (4,377 days). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.13 and an inclination of 2° with respect to the ecliptic. The first observation was made at Crimea–Nauchnij in 1976, extending the asteroid's observation arc by 2 years prior to its discovery.
In April 1996, Laocoon was observed by Italian astronomer Stefano Mottola using the now decommissioned Bochum 0.61-metre Telescope at ESO's La Silla Observatory in Chile. The light-curve gave a rotation period of 11.312±0.024 hours with a brightness variation of 0.55±0.02 in magnitude (U=2+).
...
Wikipedia