6090 Aulis

Aulis is a dark Jovian asteroid orbiting in the leading Greek camp at Jupiter's L₄ Lagrangian point, 60° ahead of the Gas Giant's orbit in a 1:1 resonance (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 3 months (4,470 days; semi-major axis of 5.31 AU). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.06 and an inclination of 20° with respect to the ecliptic.^[3] The body's observation arc begins with a precovery taken at Palomar Observatory in March 1954, almost 35 years prior to its official discovery observation.^[1]

This minor planet was numbered on 19 September 1994 (M.P.C. 23964).^[11] On 14 May 2021, the object was named by the Working Group for Small Bodies Nomenclature (WGSBN) for the ancient Greek port Aulis, mentioned in the Iliad. In Greek mythology, it was the place where the Greek fleet gathered to set off for Troy and where King Agamemnon had sacrificed his daughter Iphigenia.^[2]

Aulis is an assumed C-type asteroid. Its V–I color index of 0.98 is typical for that of most Jovian D-types, the dominant spectral type among the larger Jupiter trojans.^[10]

Italian astronomer Stefano Mottola obtained two concurring rotational lightcurves from photometric observations. In June 1994, together with astronomer Anders Erikson, he constructed a lightcurve from observations made with the 0.9-meter Dutch telescope at La Silla, showing a rotation period of 18.60±0.05 hours and a brightness variation of 0.09±0.01 magnitude (U=2+). In September 2009, he used the 1.2-meter reflector at Calar Alto Observatory, Spain, and measured a refined period of 18.476±0.007 hours with an amplitude of 0.16±0.01 in magnitude (U=2+), confirming his previous result.^[9][10]

According to the space-based 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, Aulis measures between 59.57 and 81.92 kilometers in diameter and its surface has an albedo between 0.046 and 0.087.^[6][7][8] The Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link adopts an albedo of 0.0553 from IRAS, and derives a similar diameter of 74.53 kilometers based on an absolute magnitude of 9.4.^[9]

• Asteroid Lightcurve Database (LCDB), query form (info Archived 16 December 2017 at the Wayback Machine)
• Discovery Circumstances: Numbered Minor Planets (5001)-(10000) – Minor Planet Center
• Asteroid (6090) 1989 DJ at the Small Bodies Data Ferret
• 6090 Aulis at AstDyS-2, Asteroids—Dynamic Site
  • Ephemeris · Observation prediction · Orbital info · Proper elements · Observational info
• 6090 Aulis at the JPL Small-Body Database
  • Close approach · Discovery · Ephemeris · Orbit diagram · Orbital elements · Physical parameters