50719 Elizabethgriffin

50719 Elizabethgriffin is a stony Maria asteroid and exceptionally slow rotator from the central region of the asteroid belt, approximately in diameter. It was discovered on 1 March 2000, by astronomers with the Catalina Sky Survey at Mount Lemmon Observatory, Arizona, United States. It was named for Canadian astronomer.

Classification and orbit

Elizabethgriffin is a stony S-type asteroid and a member of the Maria family, located in the Eunomia region in the intermediate main belt. It orbits the Sun in the central main belt at a distance of 2.2–2.9 Astronomical units once every 4 years and 2 months. Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.13 and an inclination of 14° with respect to the ecliptic. A first precovery was taken at Lowell Observatory in 1998, extending the asteroid's observation arc by 2 years prior to its discovery.

Numbering and naming

This minor planet was numbered by the Minor Planet Center on 20 November 2002. It was named after Elizabeth Griffin a Canadian astronomer who studies binary stars spectroscopically. She has been an advocate for the preservation and digitization of astronomic photographic plates. The official was published by the Minor Planet Center on 6 April 2019.

Physical characteristics

Slow rotator

In August 2010, a rotational lightcurve of Elizabethgriffin was obtained from photometric observations by astronomers at the Palomar Transient Factory in California. It gave an exceptionally long rotation period of 1256 hours with a brightness variation of 0.42 magnitude. This makes the asteroid the 5th slowest rotating minor planet known to exist.

Diameter and albedo

According to the surveys carried out by the NEOWISE mission of NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, Elizabethgriffin measures 3.3 kilometers in diameter and its surface has an albedo of 0.37, while the Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link assumes a standard albedo for stony asteroids of 0.21 and calculates a diameter of 3.4 kilometers with an absolute magnitude of 14.65.