1563 Noël
1563 Noël is a stony Flora asteroid from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 8 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 7 March 1943, by Belgian astronomer Sylvain Arend at the Royal Observatory of Belgium in Uccle, and named after his son.
Orbit and classification
Noël is a member of the Flora family, one of the largest groups of stony asteroids in the main-belt. It orbits the Sun at a distance of 2.0–2.4 AU once every 3 years and 3 months. Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.09 and an inclination of 6° with respect to the ecliptic. Noël was first identified as at the Crimean Simeiz Observatory in 1930, extending its observation arc by 13 years prior to its official discovery observation.Physical characteristics
The S-type asteroid is characterized as a transitional Sa-subtype on the SMASS taxonomic scheme.Rotation period
Between April 2008 and June 2015, five rotational lightcurves of Noël were obtained from photometric observations by Czech astronomer Petr Pravec at the Ondřejov Observatory near Prague. All lightcurves show a well-defined rotation period between 3.548 and 3.550 hours with a brightness variation of 0.15 to 0.18 in magnitude.In April 2008, a photometric observation by astronomer Julian Oey at the Kingsgrove Observatory, Australia, gave a concurring period of hours and an amplitude of 0.14.