is a small asteroid and Mars trojan orbiting near the of Mars (60 degrees behind Mars on its orbit).

Discovery, orbit and physical properties was first observed on 7 February 2016 by the Catalina Sky Survey; the Pan-STARRS 1 telescope system at Haleakala had imaged this object on 14 January 2016 without identifying it as an asteroid. Its orbit is characterized by low eccentricity (0.059), moderate inclination (23.1°) and a semi-major axis of 1.52 AU.MPC data on 2016 CP31 Upon discovery, it was classified as Mars-crosser by the Minor Planet Center. Its orbit is well determined as it is currently (January 2021) based on 131 observations with a data-arc span of 1652 days. has an absolute magnitude of 19.5 which gives a characteristic diameter of 400 m.

Mars trojan and orbital evolution Recent calculations indicate that it is a stable Mars trojan. It may not be a member of the so-called Eureka family.

Mars trojan (leading): † (trailing): 5261 Eureka (1990 MB) † † †

See also

References

Further reading Three new stable L5 Mars Trojans de la Fuente Marcos, C., de la Fuente Marcos, R. 2013, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters, Vol. 432, Issue 1, pp. 31–35. Orbital clustering of Martian Trojans: An asteroid family in the inner solar system? Christou, A. A. 2013, Icarus, Vol. 224, Issue 1, pp. 144–153.

External links data at MPC.