(4015)Wilson-Harrington

(4015) Wilson-Harrington is an asteroid that is part of the Apollo asteroids and was discovered by Eleanor Francis Helin from the Mount Palomar Observatory (United States), on November 15, 1979..

Designation and name

Wilson-Harrington was initially designated 1979 VA. Later, in 1993,

Orbital characteristics

Wilson-Harrington orbits at an average distance of 2.642 AU from the Sun, being able to move away up to 4.29 AU and approach up to 0.9938 AU. The eccentricity of it is 0.6238 and the orbital inclination 2.782 degrees. It takes 1,569 days to complete one orbit around the Sun.

Wilson-Harrington is a near-Earth asteroid that belongs to the group of potentially hazardous asteroids.

Physical characteristics

The absolute magnitude of Wilson-Harrington is 15.99. It has a rotation period of 3,574 hours and a diameter of 4 km. Its albedo is estimated to be 0.05. Wilson-Harrington is assigned to the CF spectral type of the Tholen classification.

Cometary Activity

This object has shown activity (sublimation of material) only during one night, the night of November 19, 1949, when some small signs of sublimation could be observed. Since that isolated night, this comet has not been activated again. In 1979 it was observed by Eleanor Helin, later Brian Marsden calculated and confirmed the orbit, concluding that this comet observed by Eleanor was the same as the one observed in 1949.

In the approximation of November 2009, a characteristic rise in its magnitude was observed, since, supposedly, it would have to be above magnitude +15, but at that time it was at magnitude +12 or +13. After having observed this comet carefully and having inspected it, it was deduced that this comet did not have any activity, and in fact it has not been active since 1949; We probably owe this increase in luminosity to some collision with some material, as we can probably also attribute to that of 1949.

In November 2009—60 years after the night of last activity—this comet was found to have a similar increase in magnitude to 1949, but astronomers were able to perform investigations in CCD, Afhro, and light curves, reaching all unanimously concluded that said increase in magnitude must have been due to a collision with some body, since the comet did not sublimate during that year or any of the past, since there was no material.

Its orbit and position were later found to be exactly those of comet Wilson-Harrington, suggesting that some eccentric-orbiting asteroids such as Hidalgo are actually extinct comets. Wilson-Harrington is included in the list of potentially dangerous asteroids, since its orbit is relatively close to Earth's.