908 Buda


908 Buda is a background asteroid from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, approximately in diameter. It was discovered by German astronomer Max Wolf at the Heidelberg Observatory on 30 November 1918. The uncommon L-type asteroid has a rotation period of 14.6 hours. It was named after Buda, the smaller part of the Hungarian city of Budapest.

Orbit and classification

Buda is a non-family asteroid of the main belt's background population when applying the hierarchical clustering method to its proper orbital elements. It orbits the Sun in the inner asteroid belt at a distance of 2.1–2.8 AU once every 3 years and 11 months. Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.15 and an inclination of 13° with respect to the ecliptic. The body's observation arc begins at Heidelberg Observatory with its official discovery observation on 30 November 1918.

Naming

This minor planet was named after Buda, the smaller part of the Hungarian capital city of Budapest. It is located on the west bank of the Danube River. The asteroid's citation was mentioned in The Names of the Minor Planets by Paul Herget in 1955.

Physical characteristics

In the Bus–Binzel SMASS classification, Buda is an uncommon L-type, while in the Bus–DeMeo taxonomy, it is a D-type asteroid.

Rotation period and poles

In March 2009, a rotational lightcurve of Buda was obtained from photometric observations by Brian Warner at his Palmer Divide Observatory in Colorado. Analysis gave a classically shaped bimodal lightcurve with a rotation period of hours and a brightness variation of magnitude. This supersedes a period determination by French amateur astronomer Laurent Bernasconi from January 2005, who determined a period of hours with an amplitude of magnitude. Observations by Julian Oey in 2015 gave two similar periods.
In 2016, a modeled lightcurve using photometric data from various sources of an international collaboration of astronomers, rendered a concurring sidereal period of and two spin axes of and in ecliptic coordinates.

Diameter and albedo

According to the survey carried out by the Infrared Astronomical Satellite IRAS, the Japanese Akari satellite, and the NEOWISE mission of NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, Buda measures, and kilometers in diameter and its surface has an albedo of, and, respectively. The Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link derives an albedo of 0.1509 and calculates a diameter of 24.33 kilometers based on an absolute magnitude of 10.74. Alternative mean-diameter measurements published by the WISE team include and with corresponding albedos of and.