This minor planet was named after Lyka, a friend of the sister of discoverer Grigory Neujmin. Lutz Schmadel, the author of the Dictionary of Minor Planet Names learned about the meaning of the asteroid's name from private communications with long-time Simeiz astronomer Nikolai Chernykh.[2]
In January 2005, a rotational lightcurveofLyka was obtained from photometric observations by Matthieu Conjat. Lightcurve analysis gave a well-defined rotation periodof7.867±0.006 hours with a low brightness variation of 0.17±0.02magnitude, indicative of a rather spherical shape (U=3).[10] In October 2018, the period was confirmed by Laurent Bernasconi (7.8838±0.0003 h) and by Alfonso Carreño of OBAS (7.889±0.007 h) with amplitudes of 0.12±0.01 and 0.26±0.03, respectively (U=3/3).[10][11]
According to the survey carried out by the Infrared Astronomical Satellite IRAS, the Japanese Akari satellite, and the NEOWISE mission of NASA's WISE telescope (WISE), Lyka measures (28.10±3.9), (31.29±0.49) and (34.878±0.184) kilometers in diameter and its surface has an albedo of (0.0891±0.031), (0.072±0.003) and (0.056±0.008), respectively.[6][7][8] The Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link derives an albedo of 0.0520 and a diameter of 27.89 km based on an absolute magnitude of 11.6.[12] Further published mean-diameters by the WISE team include (21.60±4.99 km), (26.65±9.28 km), (34.789±2.565 km) and (37.843±0.227 km) with albedos between (0.026±0.009) and (0.05±0.02).[5][12]Anasteroid occultation, observed on 4 March 2005, gave a best-fit ellipse dimension of 28.0×28.0 kilometers.[5] These timed observations are taken when the asteroid passes in front of a distant star. However the quality of the measurement is rated poorly.[5]
^ abcMasiero, Joseph R.; Grav, T.; Mainzer, A. K.; Nugent, C. R.; Bauer, J. M.; Stevenson, R.; et al. (August 2014). "Main-belt Asteroids with WISE/NEOWISE: Near-infrared Albedos". The Astrophysical Journal. 791 (2): 11. arXiv:1406.6645. Bibcode:2014ApJ...791..121M. doi:10.1088/0004-637X/791/2/121.
