1798 Watts, provisional designation 1949 GC, is a stony asteroid and binary system from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 7 kilometers in diameter.
Watts is a member of the Flora family, a large group of stony S-type asteroids in the inner main-belt. It orbits the Sun at a distance of 1.9–2.5 AU once every 3 years and 3 months (1,192 days). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.12 and an inclination of 6° with respect to the ecliptic.[1]Watts was first observed and identified as 1934 VSatYerkes Observatory in 1934, extending the body's observation arc by 15 years prior to its official discovery observation.[9]
According to the survey carried out by NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer with its subsequent NEOWISE mission, Watts measures 6.63 kilometers in diameter and its surface has an albedo between 0.276 and 0.294.[5][6][7] The Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link assumes an albedo of 0.24 – derived from 8 Flora, the largest member and namesake of this asteroid family – and calculates a diameter of 7.14 kilometers with an absolute magnitude of 12.9.[3]
In February 2017, a rotational lightcurveofWatts was obtained from photometric observations by . Lightcurve analysis gave a rotation period of 3.5060 hours with a low brightness amplitude of 0.06 magnitude, indicating that the body has a spheroidal shape (U=n.a.).
[a]
This minor planet was named in honour of American astronomer Chester Burleigh Watts (1889–1971), a graduate of Indiana University. He worked at the United States Naval Observatory for 44 years, making distinguished contributions in the field of positional astronomy and pioneered in the field of automation of transit circle observations, which led to results of the highest systematic accuracy. From the late 1940 until 1963 he meticulously mapped every feature on the marginal zone of the Moon.[2] The official naming citation was published by the Minor Planet Center on 15 June 1973 (M.P.C. 3508).[10]
