1070 Tunica, provisional designation 1926 RB, is a dark background asteroid from the outer regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 35 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 1 September 1926, by German astronomer Karl Reinmuth at the Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory in southwest Germany.[15] The asteroid was named after Petrorhagia, a flowering plant also known as "Tunica".[3]
The body's observation arc begins with its identification as A903 SA at Heidelberg in September 1903, or 23 years prior to its official discovery observation.[15]
In May 2017, a rotational lightcurve of Tunica was obtained from photometric observations by French amateur astronomer René Roy. Lightcurve analysis gave a rotation period of 15.8 hours with a brightness variation of 0.24 magnitude (U=2-).[13] Another lightcurve obtained in the R-band by astronomers at the Palomar Transient Factory in February 2010 gave a period of 15.673 hours and an amplitude of 0.32 magnitude (U=2).[12]
The Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link assumes a standard albedo for carbonaceous asteroids of 0.057 and calculates a diameter of 33.79 kilometers based on an absolute magnitude of 11.08.[4]
Due to his many discoveries, Karl Reinmuth submitted a large list of 66 newly named asteroids in the early 1930s. The list covered his discoveries with numbers between (1009) and (1200). This list also contained a sequence of 28 asteroids, starting with 1054 Forsytia, that were all named after plants, in particular flowering plants(also see list of minor planets named after animals and plants).[16]
^ abcMasiero, Joseph R.; Grav, T.; Mainzer, A. K.; Nugent, C. R.; Bauer, J. M.; Stevenson, R.; et al. (August 2014). "Main-belt Asteroids with WISE/NEOWISE: Near-infrared Albedos". The Astrophysical Journal. 791 (2): 11. arXiv:1406.6645. Bibcode:2014ApJ...791..121M. doi:10.1088/0004-637X/791/2/121.