4000 Hipparchus
4000 Hipparchus is a dark background asteroid from the central regions of the asteroid belt, approximately in diameter. It was discovered on 4 January 1989, by Japanese astronomers Seiji Ueda and Hiroshi Kaneda at the Kushiro Observatory on Hokkaido, Japan. The likely carbonaceous asteroid has a short rotation period of 3.4 hours. It was named for the ancient Greek astronomer Hipparchus.
Orbit and classification
Hipparchus is a non-family asteroid from the main belt's background population. Conversely, an alternative application of the hierarchical clustering method found it to be a core member of the Astraea family. It orbits the Sun in the central asteroid belt at a distance of 2.3–2.9 AU once every 4 years and 2 months. Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.11 and an inclination of 3° with respect to the ecliptic. The body's observation arc begins with a precovery taken at the Palomar Observatory in November 1954, or more than 34 years prior to its official discovery observation at Kushiro.Naming
This minor planet was named by IAU's Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature after the Greek astronomer Hipparchus, considered to be the greatest astronomer of ancient times. Hipparchus introduced a systematic and critical approach to both theoretical and observational astronomy. He is also honored by a lunar and a Martian crater. The official naming citation was published by the Minor Planet Center on 21 November 1991. The asteroid is one of several early "kilo-numbered" minor planets that were dedicated to renowned scientists or institutions including:- 1000 Piazzia named for Giuseppe Piazzi, discoverer of Ceres
- 2000 Herschel for William Herschel who discovered Uranus
- 3000 Leonardo for the Italian polymath of the Renaissance, Leonardo da Vinci