(7983) Festin Main-belt Asteroid
Discovered on 16 March 1980 by C.-I. Lagerkvist at La Silla.
Named in honor of Leif Festin (b. 1967) to celebrate the completion of his Ph.D. thesis on the faint end of the luminosity function. He assisted with photometric observations of minor planets while he was working at the Nordic Optical Telescope on La Palma. He is co-author of several publications on lightcurves of minor planets.Naming citation (19980411/MPCPages.arc), IAU / Minor Planet Center, via NASA/JPL
Where Festin is today
Seen from above the solar system on 2026-10-14: Festin is 2.24 au from the Sun and 1.56 au from Earth. Computed from JPL's orbital elements.
Facts
| Number | 7983 |
| Provisional designation | 1980 FY |
| Orbit class | Main-belt Asteroid |
| Rotation period | 5.56 hours |
| Absolute magnitude (H) | 14.42 |
| Orbital period | 3.18 years |
| Semi-major axis | 2.16 au |
| Perihelion – aphelion | 2.08 – 2.24 au |
| Eccentricity | 0.0390 |
| Inclination | 1.90° |
| Closest distance between its orbit and Earth's (MOID) | 1.06 au |
Data: NASA/JPL Small-Body Database and the IAU Minor Planet Center.
Also named after someone called Leif
All asteroids named after someone called Leif
Also discovered on 16 March 1980
- (2902) Westerlund
- (3386) Klementinum
- (3634) Iwan
- (4169) Celsius
- (4593) Reipurth
- (5221) Fabribudweis
- (5498) Gustafsson
- (5938) Keller
- (6150) Neukum
- (6687) Lahulla
- (6945) Dahlgren
- (7548) Engstrom