Minorplanet: | yes |
5900 Jensen | |
Background: |
|
Discovery Ref: |   |
Discovered: | 3 October 1986 |
Mpc Name: | (5900) Jensen |
Alt Names: | 1986 TL1930 UT 1969 PD |
Named After: | |
Mp Category: | main-belt Lixiaohua  |
Orbit Ref: |   |
Epoch: | 4 September 2017 (JD 2458000.5) |
Uncertainty: | 0 |
Observation Arc: | 86.46 yr (31,578 days) |
Perihelion: | 2.4821 AU |
Semimajor: | 3.1528 AU |
Eccentricity: | 0.2127 |
Period: | 5.60 yr (2,045 days) |
Mean Motion: | / day |
Inclination: | 9.0509° |
Asc Node: | 302.09° |
Arg Peri: | 35.061° |
Dimensions: | km |
Abs Magnitude: | 12.2 |
5900 Jensen, provisional designation, is a dark Lixiaohua asteroid from the outer regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 19 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 3 October 1986, by Danish astronomer Poul Jensen at the Brorfelde Observatory in Denmark. The asteroid was named for the discoverer and his wife Bodil Jensen.
Jensen is a member of the Lixiaohua family, an outer-belt asteroid family with more than 700 known members, consisting of C-type and X-type asteroids. The family's namesake is 3556 Lixiaohua.
It orbits the Sun in the outer main-belt at a distance of 2.5–3.8 AU once every 5 years and 7 months (2,045 days). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.21 and an inclination of 9° with respect to the ecliptic.
The asteroid was first identified as at Lowell Observatory in October 1930. The body's observation arc begins also at Lowell Observatory, with a precovery taken two days before its first identification, and 56 years prior to its official discovery observation at Brorfelde.
According to the survey carried out by the NEOWISE mission of NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, Jensen measures 19.934 kilometers in diameter and its surface has an albedo of 0.030.
As of 2017, no rotational lightcurve of Jensen has been obtained from photometric observations. The asteroid's rotation period, poles and shape remains unknown.
This minor planet was named in honor of the discoverer and his wife, Paul and Bodil Jensen. The name was proposed by his colleagues Karl Augustesen and Hans Jørn Fogh Olsen. Jensen worked for 35 years in the Meridian Circle Department at the Brorfelde Observatory, and also participated in the observatories minor-planet program using its Schmidt telescope.
The official naming citation was published by the Minor Planet Center on 22 July, 1994 .