This minor planet was named "Herluga", after a female name picked from the Lahrer Hinkender Bote, published in Lahr, southern Germany.[2] A Hinkender Bote (lit. "limping messenger") was a very popular almanac,[3] especially in the alemannic-speaking region from the late 17th throughout the early 20th century. The calendar section contains feast days, the dates of important fairs and astronomical ephemerides. For 2 March, the calendar gives "Herluga" as the German name day analogue next to Simplizius and Luise, the protestant and catholic entries in the calendar of saints.[14]
Reinmuth's calendar names
As with 22 other asteroids – starting with 913 Otila, and ending with 1144 Oda – Reinmuth selected names from this calendar due to his many asteroid discoveries that he had trouble thinking of proper names. These names are not related to the discoverer's contemporaries. Lutz Schmadel, the author of the Dictionary of Minor Planet Names learned about Reinmuth's source of inspiration from private communications with Dutch astronomer Ingrid van Houten-Groeneveld, who worked as a young astronomer at Heidelberg.[2]
In November 2008, a rotational lightcurve of Herluga was obtained from photometric observations by James W. Brinsfield at the Via Capote Observatory (G69) in California. Lightcurve analysis gave a rotation period of 19.746±0.002 hours with a brightness variation of 0.16±0.02magnitude (U=2).[10] In August 2016, an alternative period determination of 29.71±0.04 hours with an amplitude of 0.28±0.02 mag was published (U=2).[15]
Diameter and albedo
According to the survey carried out by the NEOWISE mission of NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE), the Japanese Akari satellite, and the Infrared Astronomical Satellite IRAS, Herluga measures (32.47±0.8), (34.553±0.269) and (34.78±0.63) kilometers in diameter and its surface has a low albedo of (0.0421±0.002), (0.037±0.006) and (0.037±0.002), respectively.[7][8][9] The Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link adopts the results obtained by IRAS, that is, an albedo of 0.0421 and a diameter of 32.47 km based on an absolute magnitude of 11.5.[12] Further published mean-diameters by the WISE team in ascending order include (30.558±10.39 km), (31.89±10.59 km), (33.794±7.947 km), (34.142±10.733 km) and (37.638±0.190 km) with albedos between 0.03 and 0.06.[6][12]
^ abcMasiero, Joseph R.; Grav, T.; Mainzer, A. K.; Nugent, C. R.; Bauer, J. M.; Stevenson, R.; et al. (August 2014). "Main-belt Asteroids with WISE/NEOWISE: Near-infrared Albedos". The Astrophysical Journal. 791 (2): 11. arXiv:1406.6645. Bibcode:2014ApJ...791..121M. doi:10.1088/0004-637X/791/2/121.
^ abcUsui, Fumihiko; Kuroda, Daisuke; Müller, Thomas G.; Hasegawa, Sunao; Ishiguro, Masateru; Ootsubo, Takafumi; et al. (October 2011). "Asteroid Catalog Using Akari: AKARI/IRC Mid-Infrared Asteroid Survey". Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan. 63 (5): 1117–1138. Bibcode:2011PASJ...63.1117U. doi:10.1093/pasj/63.5.1117. (online, AcuA catalog p. 153)