10046 Creighton
10046 Creighton, provisional designation, is a carbonaceous background asteroid from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, approximately in diameter. It was discovered on 2 May 1986, by astronomers with the International [Near-Earth Asteroid Survey] at Palomar Observatory, California, in the United States. The C-type asteroid has a rotation period of 6.57 hours. It was named after American architect James M. Creighton.
Orbit and classification
Creighton is a non-family asteroid from the main belt's background population. It orbits the Sun in the inner main-belt at a distance of 1.8–2.9 AU once every 3 years and 7 months. Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.24 and an inclination of 8° with respect to the ecliptic. The body's observation arc begins with a precovery taken at the discovering observatory in July 1954, nearly 32 years prior to its official discovery observation.Physical characteristics
Creighton has been characterized as a common X-type asteroid by Pan-STARRS photometric survey. It is also characterized as a dark C-type asteroid in the SDSS-MFB taxonomy.Rotation period
In April 2011, a rotational light-curve was obtained for this asteroid from photometric observations by American astronomer Brian Skiff. The light-curve gave a well-defined rotation period of hours with a brightness variation of 0.68 in magnitude. Two other light-curves – obtained at the Palomar Transient Factory, California, in February 2014, and by astronomer Maurice Clark at Texas Tech's Preston Gott Observatory in June 2011 – are in agreement with a period of and hours, and an amplitude of 0.46 and 0.65, respectively.Diameter and albedo
According to the survey carried out by the NEOWISE mission of NASA's Wide-field Infrared [Survey Explorer], Creighton measures between 9.80 and 11.15 kilometers in diameter and its surface has an albedo between 0.05 and 0.071.The Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link derives an albedo of 0.0417 and a diameter of 12.40 kilometers based on an absolute magnitude of 13.6.