46610 Bésixdouze

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46610 Bésixdouze (Script error: No such module "IPA".; provisional designation Template:Mp) is a bright background asteroid from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 2 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 15 October 1993, by Japanese amateur astronomers Kin Endate and Kazuro Watanabe at the Kitami Observatory in eastern Hokkaidō, Japan.[1] The asteroid was named after "B-612", home of The Little Prince.[2]

Orbit and classification

Bésixdouze is a non-family asteroid from the main belt's background population.[3] It orbits the Sun in the inner main-belt at a distance of 1.9–2.7 AU once every 3 years and 5 months (1,249 days; semi-major axis of 2.27 AU). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.18 and an inclination of 2° with respect to the ecliptic.[4]

The asteroid was first identified as Template:Mp at Crimea–Nauchnij in a single image taken in September 1986.[4][1]

Physical characteristics

Diameter and albedo

According to the survey carried out by the NEOWISE mission of NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, Bésixdouze measures 2.064 kilometers in diameter and its surface has an albedo of 0.262,[5] which is indicative for a stony composition.

Rotation period

As of 2018, no rotational lightcurve of Bésixdouze has been obtained from photometric observations. The body's rotation period, poles and shape remain unknown.[4][6]

Naming

The name was suggested by F. Hemery and Jiří Grygar as a reference to the French novella The Little Prince. The title character lived on an asteroid named B-612, which is the number 46610 written in hexadecimal notation. Bésixdouze (Script error: No such module "IPA".; "B-six-twelve") is one way to pronounce B-612 in French.[2] Like the asteroid in The Little Prince, Bésixdouze was first observed in a single night, several years before its official discovery.[1]

The official naming citation was published by the Minor Planet Center on 20 November 2002 (M.P.C. 47170Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".).[7] It says:

"The decimal number 46610 translates to the hexadecimal B612, the designation of the fictitious minor planet in de St. Exupéry's 1943 novel Le Petit Prince. B612 was allegedly spotted on a single night in 1909 and reported at a meeting in 1920. The name was suggested independently by F. Hémery and J. Grygar."[4]

See also

References

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External links

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