Minor White and Myke Collins discovered this asteroid July 27, 2000 at mV
20. We recovered it on July 30, but tried unsuccessfully to locate
it again. Four weeks later it was spotted by another observatory.
Its orbit was identified as a relatively rare Jovian Trojan.
We tracked it again on November 27, 2000 at mV 20.2, establishing a 4-month
arc. It was also linked to one-night sightings in 1994 and 1999.
We recovered it on July 19, 2001 at mV 20.2 prior to its 2001 opposition.
The surveys contributed 3 months coverage to that opposition.
Two months' coverage was obtained at its 2002 opposition, resulting in assignment
of a permanent number. This object is a trailing (L5) trojan,
following about 60 degrees behind Jupiter in its orbit. However, it
oscillates about this point in a horseshoe pattern, and in 2000 was actually
about 70 degrees behind Jupiter in heliocentric longitude.
At about 22 km it is the largest object we have discovered so far.
|
