7553 Buie

Buie orbits the Sun in the inner main-belt at a distance of 2.0-2.7 AU once every 3 years and 8 months (1,351 days; semi-major axis of 2.39 AU). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.15 and an inclination of 3° with respect to the ecliptic. It is a member of the Hertha family of S-type asteroids, which lies within the Nysa-Polana complex of the inner main belt. A first precovery was taken at the Palomar Observatory in December 1950, extending the asteroid's observation arc by 31 years prior to its discovery.

This minor planet was named in honor of American Marc William Buie (born 1958), an astronomer at the discovering Lowell Observatory and a prolific discoverer of minor planets including several trans-Neptunian objects. His contributions to planetary astronomy also include research on the moons of Pluto and the development of widely used astronomical software. The official naming citation was published by the Minor Planet Center on 28 July 1999 (M.P.C. 35486).

Buie has been characterized as a stony S-type asteroid by PanSTARRS photometric survey. It is also an S-type in the SDSS-based taxonomy.

Rotation period

In September 2012, a rotational lightcurve of Buie was obtained from photometric observations made at the Palomar Transient Factory, California. In the R-band, it gave a rotation period of 4.2418±0.0071 hours with a brightness variation of 0.51 magnitude, while in the SG-Band the period was 4.2453±0. hours with an amplitude of 0.53 magnitude (U=2/2). A high brightness variation typically indicates a non-spherical shape.

Diameter and albedo

According to the survey carried out by the NEOWISE mission of NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, Buie measures 3.4 kilometers in diameter and its surface has an albedo of 0.259, while the Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link assumes a standard albedo for stony asteroids of 0.20 and calculates a diameter of 3.92 kilometers using an absolute magnitude of 14.4.