3070 Aitken

3070 Aitken

Discovery
Discovered by	Indiana Asteroid Program
Discovery site	Goethe Link Obs.
Discovery date	4 April 1949
Designations
MPC designation	3070 Aitken
Named after	Robert Grant Aitken (astronomer)
Alternative names	1949 GK · 1942 GQ A907 HA
Minor planet category	main-belt · Flora
Orbital characteristics
Epoch 27 June 2015 (JD 2457200.5)
Uncertainty parameter 0
Observation arc	73.12 yr (26,707 days)
Aphelion	2.7621 AU
Perihelion	1.8500 AU
Semi-major axis	2.3060 AU
Eccentricity	0.1977
Orbital period	3.50 yr (1,279 days)
Mean anomaly	311.93°
Inclination	2.3451°
Longitude of ascending node	170.43°
Argument of perihelion	52.502°
Physical characteristics
Dimensions	3.85 km (calculated)
Rotation period	6.3965±0.0026 h
Geometric albedo	0.24 (assumed)
Spectral type	S
Absolute magnitude (H)	13.7

3070 Aitken, provisional designation 1949 GK, is a stony asteroid from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, about 4 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered by the Indiana Asteroid Program at the U.S. Goethe Link Observatory in Brooklyn, Indiana, on 4 April 1949.

The S-type asteroid is a member of the Flora family, one of the largest groups of stony asteroids in the main-belt. It orbits the Sun at a distance of 1.9–2.8 AU once every 3 years and 6 months (1,279 days). Its orbit shows an eccentricity of 0.20 and is tilted by 2 degrees to the plane of the ecliptic. A light-curve from the Palomar Transient Factory Survey rendered a rotation period of 6.4 hours and the Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link assumes an albedo of 0.20, a typical value for stony asteroids.

The minor planet was named in memory of American astronomer Robert Grant Aitken (1864–1951). He was the fourth director of the Lick Observatory from 1930 to 1935. Before, he was the observatory's associate director (1923–1930) under its director W. W. Campbell, who was also president of the University of California and after whom the minor planet 2751 Campbell is named. Aitken became the leading authority on double stars during his 40 years at the observatory. He is well known for the publication of his New General Catalogue of Double Stars Within 120° of the North Pole, published in two large volumes in 1932, and his book The Binary Stars that was first published in 1918 (also see § External links). He is also honoured by the lunar crater Aitken.

External links

• The Binary Stars, digital version published by Dover in 1964
• Asteroid Lightcurve Database (LCDB), query form (info)
• Dictionary of Minor Planet Names, Google books
• Asteroids and comets rotation curves, CdR – Observatoire de Genève, Raoul Behrend
• Discovery Circumstances: Numbered Minor Planets (1)-(5000) – Minor Planet Center
• 3070 Aitken at the JPL Small-Body Database

• Discovery · Orbit diagram · Orbital elements · Physical parameters