6189 Völk
6189 Völk ("prov. designation:" ) is a stony Vesta asteroid, approximately in diameter, located in the inner regions of the asteroid belt. It was discovered on 2 March 1989, by Belgian astronomer Eric Elst at the La Silla Observatory in northern Chile. The S-type asteroid has a short rotation period of 2.9 hours. It was named for Elisabeth Völk, a staff member at ESO headquarters in Germany. Classification and orbit. When applying the synthetic hierarchical clustering method to its proper orbital elements, "Völk" is a core member of the stony Vesta family, one of the largest families in  the inner asteroid belt. It orbits the Sun in the inner main-belt at a distance of 2.0–2.6 AU once every 3 years and 6 months (1,278 days; semi-major axis of 2.3 AU). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.13 and an inclination of 6° with respect to the ecliptic. It was first observed as at Palomar Observatory during the second Palomar–Leiden Trojan survey in September 1973, extending the asteroid's observation arc by almost 16 years prior to its official discovery at La Silla. Naming. This minor planet was named after Elisabeth Völk (born 1946), administrative  staff member at ESO's headquarters in Germany, in charge of the "ESO Schmidt plates archive", who became a good friend of the discoverer. The naming was independently suggested by astronomer and author of the "Dictionary of Minor Planets", Lutz Schmadel. The was published by the Minor Planet Center on 15 February 1995 (). Physical characteristics. In the SDSS-based taxonomy, "Völk" is a common, stony S-type asteroid. Lightcurve. In September 2015, a rotational lightcurve was constructed from photometric observations by Robert D. Stephens at the Center for Solar System Studies in California . Lightcurve analysis gave a well-defined rotation  period of hours with a brightness amplitude of in magnitude (). Diameter. According to the survey carried out by the NEOWISE mission of NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, the asteroid measures () kilometers in diameter and its surface has an outstandingly high albedo of (), while the "Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link" assumes an albedo of 0.24 – in accordance with the LCDB's divergent classification into the Flora family – and calculates a larger diameter of 5.2 kilometers.