1869 Philoctetes

1869 Philoctetes is a Jupiter trojan from the Greek camp, approximately 23 kilometers in diameter.
It was discovered on September 24, 1960, by the Dutch and Dutch–American astronomers Cornelis van Houten, Ingrid van Houten-Groeneveld and Tom Gehrels at Palomar Observatory on Palomar Mountain, California. The asteroid was named after Philoctetes from Greek mythology. On the same night, the same group also discovered 1868 Thersites.

Orbit and classification

Philoctetes orbits in the Lagrangian point of the Sun–Jupiter system, in the "Greek Camp" of Trojan asteroids. It orbits the Sun at a distance of 4.9–5.6 AU once every 11 years and 11 months. Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.07 and an inclination of 4° with respect to the ecliptic.

Physical characteristics

According to the survey carried out by NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer with its subsequent NEOWISE mission, Philoctetes measures 22.7 kilometers in diameter, and its surface has an albedo of 0.104.
As of 2017, the body's rotation period and shape remain unknown.

Survey designation

The survey designation P-L stands for Palomar–Leiden, named after Palomar Observatory and Leiden Observatory, which collaborated on the fruitful Palomar–Leiden survey in the 1960s. Gehrels used Palomar's Samuel Oschin telescope, and shipped the photographic plates to Cornelis Johannes van Houten and Ingrid van Houten-Groeneveld at Leiden Observatory. The trio are credited with several thousand asteroid discoveries.

Naming

This minor planet was named after the Greek mythological figure Philoctetes, famed archer and participant in the Trojan War, where he killed Paris, son of the Trojan King Priam. The official was published by the Minor Planet Center on 1 June 1975.