728 Leonisis 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 ...

of the

Flora family The Flora family (''adj. Florian''; ; also known as the Ariadne family) is a prominent family of stony asteroids located in the inner region of the asteroid belt. It is one of the largest families with more than 13,000 known members, or approx ...

, discovered by Austrian astronomer

Johann Palisa Johann Palisa (6 December 1848 – 2 May 1925) was an Austrian astronomer, born in Troppau, Austrian Silesia, now Czech Republic. He was a prolific discoverer of asteroids, discovering 122 in all, from 136 Austria in 1874 to 1073 G ...

on 16 February 1912 from

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

. There is some uncertainty as to its spectral class. It has been previously placed in the rare A and Ld classes. These are generally "stony" spectra, but with significant deviations from the usual S-type. The unusual spectrum brings Leonisis' membership in the Flora family into doubt. Photometric observations of this asteroid from the Organ Mesa Observatory in

Las Cruces, New Mexico Las Cruces (; ; lit. 'the crosses') is the List of municipalities in New Mexico, second-most populous city in the U.S. state of New Mexico and the county seat, seat of Doña Ana County, New Mexico, Doña Ana County. As of the 2020 United States ce ...

, during 2010 gave a

light curve In astronomy, a light curve is a graph (discrete mathematics), graph of the Radiance, light intensity of a celestial object or region as a function of time, typically with the magnitude (astronomy), magnitude of light received on the ''y''-axis ...

with a period of 5.5783 ± 0.0002 hours and a brightness variation of 0.20 ± 0.04 magnitude.

References

External links

* * Flora asteroids Leonisis 19120216 Leonisis {{S-beltasteroid-stub