4606 Saheki
4606 Saheki, provisional designation, is a stony Flora asteroid from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 7 kilometers in diameter.
The asteroid was discovered on 27 October 1987, by Japanese astronomer Tsutomu Seki at Geisei Observatory, Japan. It was later named after Japanese astronomer Tsuneo Saheki.
Classification and orbit
Saheki is a member of the Flora family, one of the largest families of stony asteroids. It orbits the Sun in the inner main-belt at a distance of 2.0–2.5 AU once every 3 years and 5 months. Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.10 and an inclination of 3° with respect to the ecliptic. The first precovery was taken at Palomar Observatory in 1953, extending the asteroid's observation arc by 34 years prior to its discovery.Physical characteristics
Rotation period
In January 2009, a rotational lightcurve of Saheki was obtained from photometric observations by David Higgins at Hunters Hill Observatory, Australia. Lightcurve analysis rendered a well-defined rotation period of hours with a brightness variation of 0.56 in magnitude.Two months later, in March 2009, a second lightcurve was obtained at the Via Capote Observatory, California. It gave a period of and an amplitude of 0.68 in magnitude.