As with 22 other asteroids – starting with 913 Otila, and ending with 1144 Oda – Reinmuth selected names from this calendar due to his many asteroid discoveries that he had trouble thinking of proper names. These names are not related to the discoverer's contemporaries. Lutz Schmadel, the author of the Dictionary of Minor Planet Names learned about Reinmuth's source of inspiration from private communications with Dutch astronomer Ingrid van Houten-Groeneveld, who worked as a young astronomer at Heidelberg.[2]
Physical characteristics
Itha is an S-type asteroid in the SMASS-I classification by Xu (1995).[10] This agrees with the overall spectral type for members of the Itha family.[11]: 23
Rotation period
In June 2011, a rotational lightcurve of Itha was obtained from photometric observations by Julian Oey at Kingsgrove Observatory (E19), Australia, in collaboration with three Argentinian astronomers. Lightcurve analysis gave a well-defined rotation period of 3.47393±0.00006 hours with a brightness variation of 0.30±0.03magnitude (U=3).[9] Two modeled lightcurves using photometric data from the Lowell Photometric Database and from the BlueEye600 robotic telescope (L36) at Ondřejov Observatory gave a sidereal period of 3.473810±0.000001 and 3.473808±0.000002, respectively. The modelling of the former gave two poles at (59.0°, −59.0°) and (249.0°, −72.0°), while that of the latter gave only one pole at (72.0°, −54.0°) in ecliptic coordinates (λ, β).[14][15]
Diameter and albedo
According to the surveys carried out by the Infrared Astronomical Satellite IRAS, the Japanese Akari satellite, and the NEOWISE mission of NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE), Itha measures (20.44±1.9), (21.37±0.84) and (21.561±0.106) kilometers in diameter, and its surface has an albedo of (0.2220±0.048), (0.203±0.018) and (0.224±0.034), respectively.[6][7][8] The Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link derives an albedo of 0.2412 and a diameter of 20.53 km based on an absolute magnitude of 10.6.[16] Other published mean-diameters by the WISE team include (20.335±0.281 km) and (23.715±0.094 km) with corresponding albedos of (0.224±0.034) and (0.1672±0.0333).[16][10]
^ abcUsui, Fumihiko; Kuroda, Daisuke; Müller, Thomas G.; Hasegawa, Sunao; Ishiguro, Masateru; Ootsubo, Takafumi; et al. (October 2011). "Asteroid Catalog Using Akari: AKARI/IRC Mid-Infrared Asteroid Survey". Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan. 63 (5): 1117–1138. Bibcode:2011PASJ...63.1117U. doi:10.1093/pasj/63.5.1117. (online, AcuA catalog p. 153)
^ abcMasiero, Joseph R.; Grav, T.; Mainzer, A. K.; Nugent, C. R.; Bauer, J. M.; Stevenson, R.; et al. (August 2014). "Main-belt Asteroids with WISE/NEOWISE: Near-infrared Albedos". The Astrophysical Journal. 791 (2): 11. arXiv:1406.6645. Bibcode:2014ApJ...791..121M. doi:10.1088/0004-637X/791/2/121.