3074 Popov
3074 Popov, provisional designation, is a carbonaceous Nysian asteroid from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, approximately in diameter. It was discovered on 24 December 1979, by Soviet–Russian astronomer Lyudmila Zhuravleva at the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory in Nauchnyj on the Crimean peninsula. The B-type asteroid has an unknown rotation period. It was named after Russian physicist Alexander Stepanovich Popov, an early radio pioneer in Russia.
Orbit and classification
Popov is a member of the carbonaceous subgroup of the Nysa family, a group of asteroids in the inner main-belt not far from the Kirkwood gap at 2.5 AU, a depleted zone where a 3:1 orbital resonance with the orbit of Jupiter exists. The Nysian group is named after its largest member 44 Nysa.It orbits the Sun in the inner asteroid belt at a distance of 2.1–2.6 AU once every 3 years and 7 months. Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.11 and an inclination of 2° with respect to the ecliptic.
The asteroid was first observed as at the Purple Mountain Observatory in October 1964. The body's observation arc begins with its observations as at Crimea–Nauchnij in December 1975, or four years prior to its official discovery observation.