8026 Johnmckay

8026 Johnmckay, provisional designation 1991 JA₁, is a bright, binary asteroid from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, about 2 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered by American female astronomer Eleanor Helin at the U.S. Palomar Observatory, California, on 8 May 1991.

The bright E-type asteroid is a member of the Hungaria family, which form the innermost dense concentration of asteroids in the Solar System. It orbits the Sun at a distance of 1.8–2.1 AU once every 2 years and 8 months (976 days). Its orbit is tilted by 20 degrees to the plane of the ecliptic and shows an eccentricity of 0.08. In 2010, a photometric light-curve analysis at the U.S. Palmer Divide Station in Colorado has rendered rotation period of 2.2981±0.0005 hours with a brightness amplitude of 0.10 in magnitude.

According to the survey carried out by the NEOWISE mission of the U.S. Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, the body's surface has an exceptionally high albedo of 0.81, while the Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link (CALL) assumes a more realistic value of 0.30, which is typical for bright E-type asteroids.

The asteroid was discovered in 2010 to have a small asteroid moon around it, orbiting it every 2.300±0.001 hours.

The minor planet was named in memory of NASA research pilot John B. McKay (1922–1975), who was the fifth pilot to fly the North American X-15 and made a total of 29 flights. Before joining the X-15 program, he made 46 flights in the X-1 and D-558-II Skyrocket. In 2005, he received posthumous NASA astronaut wings for a flight that reached an altitude of 89,900 metres (294,900 feet).

External links

• Asteroid Lightcurve Database (LCDB), query form (info)
• Dictionary of Minor Planet Names, Google books
• Asteroids and comets rotation curves, CdR – Observatoire de Genève, Raoul Behrend
• Discovery Circumstances: Numbered Minor Planets (5001)-(10000) – Minor Planet Center
• 8026 Johnmckay at the JPL Small-Body Database

• Discovery · Orbit diagram · Orbital elements · Physical parameters