2391 Tomita

Tomita is a member of the Nysa family, which is named after its most massive member 44 Nysa. It orbits the Sun in the inner main-belt at a distance of 2.1–2.8 AU once every 3 years and 10 months (1,393 days). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.13 and an inclination of 3° with respect to the ecliptic.

A first precovery was taken at Lowell Observatory in 1929, extending the body's observation arc by 28 years prior to its official discovery observation at Heidelberg.

Tomita has been characterized as a stony S-type asteroid by the Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link (CALL), and as a carbonaceous C-type asteroid by Pan-STARRS{{'}} photometric survey.

According to the surveys carried out by NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer with its subsequent NEOWISE mission, the asteroid measures between 15.07 and 19.4 kilometers in diameter and its surface has a low albedo between 0.03 and 0.07, respectively.

As CALL considers the body to be of a stony composition, it assumes a much higher albedo of 0.21 and calculates a diameter of 9.2 kilometers, as the higher the asteroid's reflectivity (albedo), the shorter its diameter at a constant absolute magnitude (brightness).

In December 2013, two rotational lightcurves were obtained for this asteroid from photometric observations. They gave a rotation period of {{val|7.9533|0.0005}} and {{val|8.435|0.079}} hours with a brightness variation of 0.14 and 0.15 in magnitude, respectively. ({{small|U=3/n.a.}}).{{efn|name=lcdb-Pravec}}{{efn|name=lcdb-Williams}}

This minor planet was named in honor of Japanese astronomer Kōichirō Tomita (1925–2006), long-time observer at the Tokyo Astronomical Observatory, and a discoverer of minor planets and comets himself. Tomita was also known as one of Japan's principal popularizer of astronomy. The official {{MoMP|2391|naming citation}} was published by the Minor Planet Center on 14 April 1987 ({{small|M.P.C. 11748}}).

{{notelist|refs=

{{efn|name=lcdb-Williams|1=Williams (2013) web: rotation period {{val|8.435|0.079}} hours with a brightness amplitude of {{val|0.15}} mag. Summary figures for (2391) Tomita at [http://www.minorplanet.info/PHP/generateOneAsteroidInfo.php?AstInfo=2391%7CTomita Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link (CALL)]. Data by Williams, R. (2013), posted on CALL page.}}

{{efn|name=lcdb-Pravec|1=Pravec (2013) web: [http://www.asu.cas.cz/~asteroid/02391.png lightcurve plot] with a rotation period {{val|7.9533|0.0005}} hours with a brightness amplitude of {{val|0.14}} mag. Summary figures for (2391) Tomita at [http://www.minorplanet.info/PHP/generateOneAsteroidInfo.php?AstInfo=2391%7CTomita Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link (CALL)] and [http://www.asu.cas.cz/~ppravec/neo.htm Pravec, P.; Wolf, M.; Sarounova, L. (2013)]}}

}}

{{reflist|30em|refs=

{{cite web

|type = 2016-11-23 last obs.

|title = JPL Small-Body Database Browser: 2391 Tomita (1957 AA)

|url = https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=2002391

|publisher = Jet Propulsion Laboratory

|accessdate = 13 June 2017}}

{{cite book

|title = Dictionary of Minor Planet Names – (2391) Tomita

|last = Schmadel | first = Lutz D.

|publisher = Springer Berlin Heidelberg

|page = 195

|date = 2007

|isbn = 978-3-540-00238-3

|doi = 10.1007/978-3-540-29925-7_2392 |chapter = (2391) Tomita }}

{{cite web

|title = 2391 Tomita (1957 AA)

|work = Minor Planet Center

|url = https://www.minorplanetcenter.net/db_search/show_object?object_id=2391

|accessdate = 14 August 2016}}

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|work = Minor Planet Center

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|accessdate = 14 August 2016}}

{{cite journal

|display-authors = 6

|first1 = Joseph R. |last1 = Masiero

|first2 = T. |last2 = Grav

|first3 = A. K. |last3 = Mainzer

|first4 = C. R. |last4 = Nugent

|first5 = J. M. |last5 = Bauer

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|arxiv = 1406.6645

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|publisher = Asteroid Lightcurve Database (LCDB)

|url = http://www.minorplanet.info/PHP/generateOneAsteroidInfo.php?AstInfo=2391%7CTomita

|accessdate = 14 August 2016}}

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|first7 = M. S. |last7 = Cabrera

|date = November 2012

|title = Preliminary Analysis of WISE/NEOWISE 3-Band Cryogenic and Post-cryogenic Observations of Main Belt Asteroids

|url = http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/bib_query?bibcode=2012ApJ...759L...8M

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}}

• [http://www.minorplanet.info/PHP/lcdbsummaryquery.php Asteroid Lightcurve Database (LCDB)], query form ([http://www.minorplanet.info/lightcurvedatabase.html info] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171216050541/http://www.minorplanet.info/lightcurvedatabase.html |date=16 December 2017 }})
• [https://books.google.com/books?id=aeAg1X7afOoC&pg Dictionary of Minor Planet Names], Google books
• [http://obswww.unige.ch/~behrend/page_cou.html Asteroids and comets rotation curves, CdR] – Observatoire de Genève, Raoul Behrend
• [https://www.minorplanetcenter.net/iau/lists/NumberedMPs000001.html Discovery Circumstances: Numbered Minor Planets (1)-(5000)] – Minor Planet Center
• {{AstDys|2391}}
• {{JPL small body}}

{{Minor planets navigator |2390 Nežárka |number=2391 |2392 Jonathan Murray}}

{{Small Solar System bodies}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tomita}}

002391

Category:Discoveries by Karl Wilhelm Reinmuth

Category:Named minor planets

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