2296 Kugultinov, provisional designation, is a carbonaceous Themistian asteroid from the outer region of the asteroid belt, approximately 20 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 18 January 1975, by Russian astronomer Lyudmila Chernykh at the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory on the Crimean peninsula in Nauchnyj, and named after Soviet poet David Nikitich Kugultinov.

Classification and orbit

Kugultinov is a carbonaceous C-type asteroid and member of the Themis family, a dynamical family of outer-belt asteroids with nearly coplanar ecliptical orbits. It orbits the Sun in the outer main-belt at a distance of 2.7–3.7 AU once every 5 years and 8 months (2,073 days). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.17 and an inclination of 1° with respect to the ecliptic.

Physical characteristics

Diameter and albedo

According to the surveys carried out by the NEOWISE mission of NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer and the Japanese Akari satellite, Kugultinov measures between 15.10 and 21.566 kilometers in diameter and its surface has an albedo between 0.083 and 0.12. The Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link (CALL) assumes an albedo of 0.08 and calculates a diameter of 20.51 kilometers based an absolute magnitude of 11.8.

Lightcurves

Three different rotational lightcurves of Kugultinov were obtain from photometric observations. The first, fragmentary lightcurve by Roberto Crippa and Federico Manzini in December 2013, gave a rotation period of 10 hours with a brightness variation of 0.03 magnitude (U=1). In April 2015, the result was superseded by observations made by Kim Lang at the Klokkerholm Observatory in Denmark, and by a team at the U.S. University of Maryland using the iTelescope network, obtaining a period of 16.85 (U=2) and 8.433 hours (U=2+) with an amplitude of 0.23 and 0.19, respectively. CALL considers the shorter period solution the better result.

Naming

This minor planet was named after David Nikitich Kugultinov (1922–2006), prominent Soviet poet and national poet of the Republic of Kalmykia (also see 2287 Kalmykia). The approved naming citation was published by the Minor Planet Center on 2 December 1990 (M.P.C. 17465).