11351 Leucus

Leucus is a dark Jupiter trojan asteroid in a 1:1 orbital resonance with Jupiter. It is located in the leading Greek camp at Jupiter's L₄ Lagrangian point, 60° ahead of its orbit (see Trojans in astronomy). It is also a non-family asteroid in the Jovian background population.^[5]

It orbits the Sun at a distance of 5.0–5.6 AU once every 12 years and 2 months (4,440 days; semi-major axis of 5.29 AU). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.06 and an inclination of 12° with respect to the ecliptic.^[3] The body's observation arc begins with a precovery taken at the Siding Spring Observatory in July 1982, more than 15 years prior to its official discovery observation at Xinglong.^[1]

Leucus is planned to be visited by the Lucy spacecraft, which launched in 2021. The flyby is scheduled for 18 April 2028, and will approach the asteroid to a distance of 1,000 km (620 mi) at a relative velocity of 5.9 km/s (13,000 mph).^[8]

Leucus is a D-type asteroid,^[8] which is the dominant spectral type among the Jupiter trojans, with the remainder being mostly carbonaceous C-type and primitive P-type asteroids.

During spring 2013, a rotational lightcurve of Leucus was obtained from photometric observations made by astronomers Robert Stephens and Daniel Coley at the Center for Solar System Studies (CS3), California, using a 0.35/0.4-meter Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope. The lightcurve showed an exceptionally slow rotation period of 513.7 hours with a brightness variation of 0.53 in magnitude (U=2+). No evidence of a non-principal axis rotation (NPAR) was found.^[11] It is one of the slowest rotators known to exist.

In preparation for the planned visit by the Lucy spacecraft, Leucus was once again observed by astronomers Marc Buie at SwRI and Stefano Mottola at DLR in 2016. The obtained bimodal lightcurve gave a somewhat shorter period of 440 hours and an amplitude of 0.7 magnitude.^[12]

According to the surveys carried out by the Infrared Astronomical Satellite IRAS, and NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer with its subsequent NEOWISE mission, Leucus has a low albedo of 0.06 and 0.08, with a diameter of 42.1 and 34.2 kilometers, respectively.^[13][14] The Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link derives a lower albedo of 0.05 and a diameter of 42.1 kilometers, in accordance with the result obtained by IRAS.^[15]

This minor planet was named from Greek mythology, after the Achaean warrior Leucus in Homer's Iliad. He was a companion of Odysseus.^[1] Leucus was killed during the Trojan War by Antiphus, one of the fifty sons of King Priam of Troy.^[16] The approved naming citation was published by the Minor Planet Center on 22 February 2016 (M.P.C. 98711).^[17]

• Asteroid Lightcurve Database (LCDB), query form (info Archived 16 December 2017 at the Wayback Machine)
• Dictionary of Minor Planet Names, Google books
• Discovery Circumstances: Numbered Minor Planets (10001)-(15000) – Minor Planet Center
• Asteroid 11351 Leucus at the Small Bodies Data Ferret
• 11351 Leucus at AstDyS-2, Asteroids—Dynamic Site
  • Ephemeris · Observation prediction · Orbital info · Proper elements · Observational info
• 11351 Leucus at the JPL Small-Body Database
  • Close approach · Discovery · Ephemeris · Orbit diagram · Orbital elements · Physical parameters