1496 Turku, provisional designation 1938 SA1, is a Florian asteroid from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 8 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 22 September 1938, by astronomer Yrjö Väisälä at the Iso-Heikkilä Observatory in Turku, Finland.[11] The asteroid was named for the Finnish city of Turku.[2]
Turku is a member of the Flora family (402), a giant asteroid family and the largest family of stony asteroids in the main belt.[3] It is, however, a non-family asteroid from the main belt's background population when applying the Hierarchical Clustering Method to its proper orbital elements.[4]
It orbits the Sun in the inner main-belt at a distance of 1.8–2.6 AU once every 3 years and 3 months (1,197 days). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.16 and an inclination of 3° with respect to the ecliptic.[1] The body's observation arc begins with its first identification as 1928 QNatJohannesburg Observatory in August 1928, more than 10 years prior to its official discovery observation at Turku.[11]
In April 2006, a rotational lightcurveofTurku was obtained from photometric observations by French amateur astronomer Laurent Bernasconi. Lightcurve analysis gave a rotation period of 6.47 hours with a brightness amplitude of 0.51 magnitude, indicative of a non-spherical shape (U=3-).[8]
A 2016-published lightcurve, using modeled photometric data from the Lowell Photometric Database, gave a concurring period of 6.47375 hours, as well as a spin axis of (75.0°, −75.0°) in ecliptic coordinates (λ, β).[9]
According to the survey carried out by the NEOWISE mission of NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, Turku measures between 7.47 and 7.973 kilometers in diameter and its surface has an albedo between 0.1930 and 0.347.[5][6][7]
The Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link assumes an albedo of 0.24 – derived from 8 Flora, the largest member and namesake of the Flora family – and calculates a diameter of 8.19 kilometers based on an absolute magnitude of 12.6.[3]
^Schmadel, Lutz D. "Appendix – Publication Dates of the MPCs". Dictionary of Minor Planet Names – Addendum to Fifth Edition (2006–2008). Springer Berlin Heidelberg. p. 221. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-01965-4. ISBN978-3-642-01964-7.
