8992 Magnanimity

8992 Magnanimity, provisional designation, is a stony asteroid from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 6 kilometers in diameter.
The asteroid was discovered on 14 October 1980, by a team of astronomers at the Purple Mountain Observatory in Nanjing, China. It was named in response to the September 11 attacks.

Orbit and classification

Magnanimity orbits the Sun in the inner main-belt at a distance of 1.9–2.9 AU once every 3 years and 8 months. Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.21 and an inclination of 8° with respect to the ecliptic. In September 1954, it was first identified as at Goethe Link Observatory, extending the body's observation arc by 26 years prior to its official discovery observation at Nanjing.

Physical characteristics

The Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link assumes a standard albedo for stony asteroids of 0.20 and calculates a diameter of 6.2 kilometers. A rotational lightcurve of Magnanimity was obtained from photometric observations by Czech astronomer Petr Pravec at Ondřejov Observatory in September 2013. It gave a well-defined and longer-than-average rotation period of hours with a brightness variation of 0.25 magnitude.

Naming

This minor planet was named Magnanimity in response to the September 11 attacks. As a commemorative gesture, the IAU's Committee for the Nomenclature of Small Bodies chose three objects discovered from observatories on different continents and christened them with names representing some of the most basic and universal human values. The other two selections were 8990 Compassion and 8991 Solidarity. The approved naming citation was published by the Minor Planet Center on 2 October 2001.