6708 Bobbievaile
Encyclopedia
6708 Bobbievaile is a main-belt asteroid discovered on 4 January 1989 by McNaught, R. H. at Siding Spring Observatory
. It is named after Dr Roberta Anne 'Bobbie' Vaile
and has an orbital period
of 3.82 years.
On 7 May 2009 it was announced that 6708 Bobbievaile was determined to be a binary asteroid
based on a series of lightcurve observations. The primary
is estimated to have a diameter of approximately 8 km, and the secondary to have a diameter of approximately 4.5 km. The primary is probably spherical.
Siding Spring Observatory
Siding Spring Observatory near Coonabarabran, New South Wales, Australia, part of the Research School of Astronomy & Astrophysics at the Australian National University , incorporates the Anglo-Australian Telescope along with a collection of other telescopes owned by the Australian National...
. It is named after Dr Roberta Anne 'Bobbie' Vaile
Bobbie Vaile
Dr Roberta Anne 'Bobbie' Vaile was an Australian astrophysicist and senior lecturer in physics at the Faculty of Business and Technology at the University of Western Sydney, Macarthur. She was involved with Project Phoenix and influential in the establishment of the SETI Australia Centre, created...
and has an orbital period
Orbital period
The orbital period is the time taken for a given object to make one complete orbit about another object.When mentioned without further qualification in astronomy this refers to the sidereal period of an astronomical object, which is calculated with respect to the stars.There are several kinds of...
of 3.82 years.
On 7 May 2009 it was announced that 6708 Bobbievaile was determined to be a binary asteroid
Binary asteroid
A binary asteroid is a system of two asteroids orbiting their common center of mass, in analogy with binary stars. 243 Ida was the first binary asteroid to be identified when the Galileo spacecraft did a flyby in 1993...
based on a series of lightcurve observations. The primary
Primary (astronomy)
A primary is the main physical body of a gravitationally-bound, multi-object system. This body contributes most of the mass of that system and will generally be located near its center of mass....
is estimated to have a diameter of approximately 8 km, and the secondary to have a diameter of approximately 4.5 km. The primary is probably spherical.