1216 Askania, provisional designation 1932 BL, is a stony Florian asteroid from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 9 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 29 January 1932, by German astronomer Karl Reinmuth at Heidelberg Observatory in southwest Germany.[10] It was named after the company Askania Werke, a German manufacturer of precision instruments.[2]
The body's observation arc begins with its official discovery observation at Heidelberg in 1932. In July 1906, a first precovery was taken at the Lowell Observatory, and in April 1909, the asteroid was first identified at the discovering observatory as A909 GF.[10]
Lightcurve observations of Askania at the Menke Observatory in July 2006, show a well-defined periodicity of 6.536 hours, during which time the brightness of the body varies by 0.30magnitude (U=3-).[9]
Diameter and albedo
According to the surveys carried out by the Japanese Akari satellite, and the NEOWISE mission of NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, Askania measures between 7.21 and 10.533 kilometers in diameter and its surface has an albedo between 0.064 and 0.15.[6][7][8]
The Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link assumes an albedo of 0.24 – derived from 8 Flora, an stony asteroid and largest member and namesake of the Flora family – and calculates a diameter of 5.44 kilometers with an absolute magnitude of 13.49.[3][a]
Notes
^ abThe Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link groups any asteroid into the Flora family that has a semi-major axis, inclination and eccentricity in the following ranges: 2.15 < a < 2.35; 0.03 < e < 0.23: 1.5 < i < 8. However, modern synthetic clustering models exclude (1216) Askania from the Flora family, see AstDyS-2 and Nesvorny HCM Asteroid Families V3.0.
^ abcdUsui, Fumihiko; Kuroda, Daisuke; Müller, Thomas G.; Hasegawa, Sunao; Ishiguro, Masateru; Ootsubo, Takafumi; et al. (October 2011). "Asteroid Catalog Using Akari: AKARI/IRC Mid-Infrared Asteroid Survey". Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan. 63 (5): 1117–1138. Bibcode:2011PASJ...63.1117U. doi:10.1093/pasj/63.5.1117. (online, AcuA catalog p. 153)