2004 Lexell
2004 Lexell, provisional designation, is a stony Florian asteroid from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 7.5 kilometers in diameter. The asteroid was discovered on 22 September 1973, by Soviet astronomer Nikolai Chernykh at the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory in Nauchnij, on the Crimean peninsula, and later named for Swedish-Russian astronomer and mathematician Anders Johan Lexell.
Classification and orbit
Lexell is a member of the Flora family, one of the largest collisional populations of stony asteroids. It orbits the Sun at a distance of 2.0–2.3 AU once every 3 years and 2 months. Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.08 and an inclination of 2° with respect to the ecliptic.The asteroid was first identified as at the Finnish Turku Observatory in November 1938, extending the body's observation arc by 35 years prior to its official discovery observation at Nauchnij.
Physical characteristics
Pan-STARRS photometric survey characterized Lexell as a LS-type asteroid, which transitions between the common S-type and rare L-type asteroid.Rotation period
In March 2013, two rotational lightcurves of Lexell were obtained from photometric observations by Gary Haagen at Stonegate Observatory, Massachusetts, and by a group of astronomers at the Oakley Southern Sky Observatory, Australia. Lightcurve analysis gave a well-defined rotation period of 5.441 and 5.4429 hours with a brightness variation of 0.45 and 0.42 magnitude, respectively.In February 2013, observations made by French amateur astronomer Pierre Antonini gave a concurring period of 5.44 hours with an amplitude of 0.51 magnitude.