provisional designation
Provisional designation in astronomy is the naming convention applied to astronomical objects immediately following their discovery. The provisional designation is usually superseded by a permanent designation once a reliable orbit has been calcu ...
'': and cometary designation , is an
asteroid
An asteroid is a minor planet—an object larger than a meteoroid that is neither a planet nor an identified comet—that orbits within the Solar System#Inner Solar System, inner Solar System or is co-orbital with Jupiter (Trojan asteroids). As ...
and
main-belt comet
Active asteroids are Small Solar System body, small Solar System bodies that have asteroid-like orbits but show comet-like visual characteristics. That is, they show a Coma (cometary), coma, comet tail, tail, or other visual evidence of mass-loss ...
from the outer regions of the
asteroid belt
The asteroid belt is a torus-shaped region in the Solar System, centered on the Sun and roughly spanning the space between the orbits of the planets Jupiter and Mars. It contains a great many solid, irregularly shaped bodies called asteroids ...
, approximately in diameter. It was discovered on 31 January 2003 by astronomers of the
LONEOS
Lowell Observatory Near-Earth-Object Search (LONEOS) was a project designed to discover asteroids and comets that orbit near the Earth. The project, funded by NASA, was directed by astronomer Ted Bowell of Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Ariz ...
program conducted at
Anderson Mesa Station
Anderson Mesa Station is an astronomical observatory established in 1959 as a dark-sky observing site for Lowell Observatory. It is located at Anderson Mesa in Coconino County, Arizona, about southeast of Lowell's main campus on Mars Hill in F ...
near Flagstaff, Arizona, in the United States.
Orbit and classification
is a
main-belt comet
Active asteroids are Small Solar System body, small Solar System bodies that have asteroid-like orbits but show comet-like visual characteristics. That is, they show a Coma (cometary), coma, comet tail, tail, or other visual evidence of mass-loss ...
with a Jupiter
Tisserand's parameter
Tisserand's parameter (or Tisserand's invariant) is a number calculated from several orbital elements (semi-major axis, orbital eccentricity, and inclination) of a relatively small object and a larger " perturbing body". It is used to distinguish d ...