The Solar System has acquired Vitebsk

On January 2, Vitebsk /Diana Kurilo - BELTA/. The Committee on Small Body Nomenclature of the Solar System in Cambridge (USA) has registered an asteroid under the number 264061 named "Vitebsk", the discoverer of the celestial body, Vitebsk amateur astronomer Vitaly Nevsky, informed a BELTA correspondent. The asteroid was discovered in 2009 using remote access at the Tzec Maun Observatory (USA). The fully automated observatory allows registered users to observe the night sky using a computer connected to the Internet, the interlocutor explained. The observatory's telescope needs to be operated independently: selecting an area for shooting by setting aiming coordinates, choosing a guide star that the telescope will track during exposure to obtain a high-quality image, setting the necessary shooting parameters, and finally, monitoring the process itself, as automation often fails. The obtained images are processed manually. First, calibration is necessary because the "raw" images are filled with extraneous matrix noise, and only then are the images uploaded to an astrometric program to identify the area with the astrometric catalog, after which the image can be viewed for possible new objects. This entire process ultimately takes several hours. But even after this, if a new object is discovered, it is not enough for registration of the discovery. Only after the second night can a preliminary designation and discoverer's priority be obtained. But this is only a preliminary designation; in order for the asteroid to receive a sequential number in the catalog, it must be "placed" on a stable orbit, i.e., observations must be made over several years.

Vitaliy Nevskiy managed to track the asteroid for three weeks, only after which the obtained data could be correlated with scattered archival observations over five oppositions. Additional observations were also carried out in 2010. As a result, the asteroid was assigned the sequential number 264061, which allowed it to be named. At the end of 2011, an application was submitted, and by a commission meeting of the Committee on Small Body Nomenclature of the Solar System, the asteroid was given the name "Vitebsk" in honour of the regional centre of the Republic of Belarus, which is reflected in circular MPEC 77125. According to the discoverer, senior lecturer at Vitebsk State University named after P. Masherov, Vladimir Golubev, and Viktor Shor from the Institute of Applied Astronomy of the Russian Academy of Sciences, provided significant assistance in processing the application.

The asteroid Vitebsk has a transverse diameter of about five kilometres. At the moment of discovery, it was located at a distance of 354 million km from Earth. The asteroid moves in a nearly circular orbit, completing one revolution around the Sun in 6.36 years, so the minimum approach to Earth can only be 330 million km. The asteroid is located outside the main belt and belongs to the small group of Cybele asteroids, named after its brightest representative, asteroid (65) Cybele, discovered by Tempel back in 1861.

It is worth noting that there are now three asteroids in the Universe named after Belarusian cities. Previously, the names "Minsk" and "Brest" were assigned.

An asteroid is defined as a small (from 30 m in transverse diameter) planet-like celestial body orbiting the Sun. Hundreds of thousands of asteroids have been discovered in the Solar System. Initially, asteroids were named after heroes of Roman and Greek mythology; later, discoverers were granted the right to name them as they pleased, for example, after themselves. In the beginning, asteroids were predominantly given female names, with male names assigned only to asteroids with unusual orbits (e.g., Icarus, which approaches the Sun closer than Mercury). Later, this rule also ceased to be observed. Not every asteroid can receive a name; only those whose orbits have been calculated with a reasonable degree of certainty. There have been instances where an asteroid received a name decades after its discovery. Until its orbit is calculated, an asteroid is given a sequential number reflecting its discovery date. After receiving a name, the official designation of an asteroid consists of a number (its sequential number) and a name. -0-

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