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1777 Gehrels, also designated 4007 P–L, is an asteroid from the middle region of the asteroid belt, about 13 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered during the Palomar–Leiden survey by the Dutch astronomer couple Ingrid and Cornelis van Houten, in collaboration with Dutch–American astronomer Tom Gehrels at Palomar Observatory, California, on 24 September 1960.〔 The stony asteroid is classified as a transitional Sq-type in the SMASS classification taxonomy. It orbits the Sun at a distance of 2.6–2.7 AU once every 4 years and 3 months (1,555 days). Its orbit shows an eccentricity of 0.02 and is tilted by 3 degrees to the plane of the ecliptic. It has an albedo of around 0.22 to 0.28.〔〔 and rotates every 2.8 hours around its axis.〔〔〔 The designation ''P–L'' stands for ''Palomar–Leiden'', named after Palomar Observatory and Leiden Observatory, which collaborated on the fruitful Palomar–Leiden survey in the 1960s. Gehrels used Palomar's Samuel Oschin telescope (also known as the 48-inch Schmidt Telescope), and shipped the photographic plates to Ingrid and Cornelis van Houten at Leiden Observatory. The trio are credited with several thousand asteroid discoveries. The minor planet was named in honor of Dutch-born American astronomer Tom Gehrels (1925–2011), professor at the University of Arizona, staff member of the LPL research center at Tucson, a principal investigator in the Pioneer program, receiver of the Masursky Award, initiator of the Spacewatch project, and co-discoverer of thousands of minor planets in the Palomar–Leiden survey ''(see above)''. He was a pioneer in the field of photometric and polarimetric observations of Solar System bodies in the 1950s.〔〔 == References == }} 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「1777 Gehrels」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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