2031 BAM, provisional designation 1969 TG2, is a stony Florian asteroid from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 8 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 8 October 1969, by Soviet astronomer Lyudmila Chernykh at the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory in Nauchnyj, on the Crimean peninsula.[8] The asteroid was named for those who built the Baikal–Amur Mainline (BAM; БАМ), a Siberian railway line.[2]
The body's observation arc begins with its identification as 1939 VBatUccle Observatory in November 1939, almost 30 years prior to its official discovery observation at Nauchnyj.[8]
In October 2016, a rotational lightcurveofBAM was obtained from photometric observations by amateur astronomer Matthieu Conjat. Lightcurve analysis gave a well-defined rotation period of 10.774 hours with a brightness amplitude of 0.15 magnitude (U=3).[6]
According to the survey carried out by the Japanese Akari satellite, BAM measures 8.14 kilometers in diameter and its surface has an albedo of 0.170.[5] The Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link assumes a standard albedo of 0.24 – derived from 8 Flora, the parent body of the Flora family – and calculates a diameter of 7.14 kilometers based on an absolute magnitude of 12.9.[3]
^ abcdUsui, Fumihiko; Kuroda, Daisuke; Müller, Thomas G.; Hasegawa, Sunao; Ishiguro, Masateru; Ootsubo, Takafumi; et al. (October 2011). "Asteroid Catalog Using Akari: AKARI/IRC Mid-Infrared Asteroid Survey". Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan. 63 (5): 1117–1138. Bibcode:2011PASJ...63.1117U. doi:10.1093/pasj/63.5.1117. (online, AcuA catalog p. 153)
^"BAM". Mark Andrew Holmes' Personal Web Page. Retrieved 5 December 2017.
^Schmadel, Lutz D. (2009). "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.