3330 Gantrisch


3330 Gantrisch, provisional designation, is a dark asteroid from the outer regions of the asteroid belt and the largest member of the Lixiaohua family, approximately 36 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 12 September 1985, by Swiss astronomer Thomas Schildknecht at Zimmerwald Observatory near Bern, Switzerland. It was named after the Gantrisch mountain.

Classification

Gantrisch is a member of the Lixiaohua family, an outer-belt asteroid family of more than 700 known members, which consists of C-type and X-type asteroids and is named after 3556 Lixiaohua. With diameter of 36 kilometers, Gantrisch is significantly larger than all other, low-numbered members of this family: 3556 Lixiaohua, 5771 Somerville, 5900 Jensen and 8773 Torquilla.

Largest member

Since Gantrisch is the family's largest member, the Lixiaohua family is sometimes called "Gantrisch family". However, renaming families leads to potential confusion and is discouraged by Nesvorný, who proposes to keep the original name and regards the family name as a "label", irrespective of whether or not its namesake is the largest and/or lowest numbered member.

Orbit

Gantrisch orbits the Sun in the outer main-belt at a distance of 2.5–3.8 AU once every 5 years and 7 months. Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.20 and an inclination of 10° with respect to the ecliptic.
The asteroid was first identified as at Heidelberg Observatory in October 1918.
The body's observation arc also begins at Heidelberg in March 1933, more than 52 years prior to its official discovery observation at Zimmerwald.

Physical characteristics

According to the survey carried out by the NEOWISE mission of NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, Gantrisch measures 35.717 kilometers in diameter and its surface has an albedo of 0.033.

Rotation period

As of 2017, no rotational lightcurve of Gantrisch has been obtained from photometric observations. The asteroid's rotation period, poles and shape remains unknown.

Naming

This minor planet was named after the Gantrisch mountain, located south of the discovering observatory in the Bernese Alps. The official naming citation was published by the Minor Planet Center on 3 May 1996.