2008 GO98 is classified as a member of the dynamical Hilda group,[4] as well as a Jupiter family that shows clear cometary activity,[6][5] which has also been described as a "quasi-Hilda comet".[3] Orbital backward integration suggests that it might have been a centaur or trans-Neptunian object that ended its dynamical evolution as a quasi-Hilda comet.[3] It may have reached the belt during the last few hundred years.[7]
Although 2008 GO98 orbits in the asteroid belt, it has a Jupiter Tisserand's parameter (TJ) of 2.926,[2] just below Jewitt's threshold of 3, which serves as a distinction between the main-belt asteroids (TJ larger than 3) and the Jupiter-family comets (TJ between 2 and 3).[8]
In August 2017, a rotational lightcurve of 2008 GO98 was obtained from photometric observations by American astronomer Brian Warner at the Palmer Divide Station (U82) in California. Lightcurve analysis gave a rotation period of 10.74±0.01 hours with a small brightness amplitude of 0.12 magnitude (U=2).[4][a]
Diameter and albedo
The Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link assumes a standard albedo for a carbonaceous body of 0.057 and calculates a diameter of 14.64 kilometers based on an absolute magnitude of 12.9.[4] Other estimates, taking into account several published magnitude measurements and a large range of albedo assumptions, estimate a diameter range of 5.5 to 24.7 kilometers.[5]
Notes
^ abLightcurve plot of (457175) 2008 GO98, by B. D Warner, at CS3 (2017). Rotation period 10.74±0.01 hours with a brightness amplitude of 0.12±0.02 mag. Quality Code is 2. Summary figures at the LCDB.