1615 Bardwell

1615 Bardwell (1950 BW) is an asteroid discovered at Goethe Link Observatory near Brooklyn, Indiana, by the Indiana Asteroid Program.[1] It is named for Conrad M. Bardwell (1926-2010), a research associate at the Minor Planet Center at the Cincinnati Observatory and later associate director of the Minor Planet Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts.[2][3]

Based upon its spectrum, 1615 Bardwell is listed as a rare B-type asteroid under the Tholen classification taxonomy. There is a broad absorption feature at 1 μm that is associated with the presence of magnetite and is what gives the asteroid its blue tint.[4]

This is a member of the Themis dynamical family of asteroids that share similar orbital elements.[4]

Notes and references

  1. ↑ "Numbered Minor Planets 1–5000", Discovery Circumstances (IAU Minor Planet center), retrieved 2013-04-07.
  2. ↑ Schmadel, Lutz D. (2003), Dictionary of Minor Planet Names 1, Springer, p. 128, ISBN 3540002383.
  3. ↑ http://www.cbat.eps.harvard.edu/iauc/09100/09148.html
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Yang, Bin; Jewitt, David (September 2010), "Identification of Magnetite in B-type Asteroids", The Astronomical Journal 140 (3): 692–698, arXiv:1006.5110, Bibcode:2010AJ....140..692Y, doi:10.1088/0004-6256/140/3/692.

External links