737 Arequipa

737 Arequipa
Discovery
Discovered by	Joel Hastings Metcalf
Discovery site	Winchester, Massachusetts
Discovery date	7 December 1912
Designations
MPC designation	(737) Arequipa
Alternative designations	1912 QB
Orbital characteristics
	Epoch 31 July 2016 (JD 2457600.5)
	Uncertainty parameter 0
Observation arc	100.96 yr (36874 d)
Aphelion	3.2248 AU (482.42 Gm)
Perihelion	1.9562 AU (292.64 Gm)
Semi-major axis	2.5905 AU (387.53 Gm)
Eccentricity	0.24485
Orbital period (sidereal)	4.17 yr (1,522.9 d)
Mean anomaly	24.8306°
Mean motion	0° 14m 11.004s / day
Inclination	12.368°
Longitude of ascending node	184.672°
Argument of perihelion	134.348°
Physical characteristics
Mean radius	22.035±0.7 km
Synodic rotation period	7.0259 h (0.29275 d)
Geometric albedo	0.2723±0.018
Spectral type	S
Absolute magnitude (H)	8.81

737 Arequipa is a minor planet orbiting the Sun. It was discovered by American astronomer Joel Hastings Metcalf on 7 December 1912 from Winchester, Massachusetts. This stony S-type asteroid was named after the Peruvian city of Arequipa, where Harvard's Boyden Observatory was located prior to 1927. It is orbiting at a distance of 2.59 AU from the Sun, with an orbital eccentricity (ovalness) of 0.245 and a period of 4.17 yr. The orbital plane is inclined at an angle of 12.4° to the ecliptic.^[1]

The rotation period of this asteroid has proven to be a challenge to determine, most likely because it has a complex shape and a rotation axis with a low inclination. However, during the 2015 apparition, photometric measurements of the asteroid were taken from close to the equatorial perspective. The resulting light curve displayed a rotation period of 7.0259±0.0003 h.^[2]

References

^ ^a ^b "737 Arequipa (1912 QB)". JPL Small-Body Database. NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Retrieved 20 May 2023.
^ Marciniak, Anna; et al. (June 2016). Różańska, Agata; Bejger, M. (eds.). "Difficult cases in photometric studies of asteroids". 37th Meeting of the Polish Astronomical Society, held 7–10 September 2015 at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Poland. Proceedings of the Polish Astronomical Society. 3: 84–87. Bibcode:2016pas..conf...84M.