Binzel is a member of the Flora family (402), a giant asteroid family and the largest family of stony asteroids in the main-belt.[3][4][11]: 23 It orbits the Sun in the inner main belt at a distance of 1.9–2.6 AU once every 3 years and 5 months (1,234 days). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.16 and an inclination of 6° with respect to the ecliptic.[1]
The body's observation arc begins with its identification as 1935 KH at the Johannesburg Observatory in 1935, almost 47 years prior to its official discovery observation at Anderson Mesa.[10]
In September 2010, a rotational lightcurve of Binzel was obtained from photometric observations in the R-band by astronomers at the Palomar Transient Factory in California. Lightcurve analysis gave a rotation period of 11.560 hours with a brightness variation of 0.14 magnitude (U=2).[8]
Diameter and albedo
According to the survey carried out by the NEOWISE mission of NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, Binzel measures 6.426 and 7.011 kilometers in diameter and its surface has an albedo of 0.2307 and 0.272, respectively.[6][7]
The Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link assumes an albedo of 0.24 – derived from 8 Flora, the largest member and namesake of the Flora family – and calculates a diameter of 6.48 kilometers based on an absolute magnitude of 13.11.[3]
Naming
This minor planet was named after American astronomer Richard Binzel (born 1958) of the University of Texas at Austin. During the 1980s, Binzel has been a prolific photometrist, obtaining a large number of rotational lightcurves of main-belt asteroids. The official naming citation was prepared by Alan W. Harris and published by the Minor Planet Center on 8 November 1984 (M.P.C. 9215).[2][12]