691 Lehigh is an asteroid orbiting the Sun in the asteroid belt, discovered in 1909. It is named after Lehigh University, where its orbit was calculated in the Masters Thesis of Joseph B. Reynolds, following the observations of amateur astronomer Joel Metcalf. The asteroid is a CD:-type asteroid, suggesting its surface is largely carbonaceous, with many primitive molecules similar to those of comets. Due to this, it has a cometlike surface albedo of just 0.05, similar to fresh asphalt, meaning that it reflects only 5% of light that hits it. Lehigh is not known to be a member of any collisional asteroid family.

References

External links Planet Lehigh: Early Astronomy, Lehigh University – Special Collections , Palmer Divide Observatory, B. D. Warner (2009) Asteroid Lightcurve Database (LCDB), query form (info ) Dictionary of Minor Planet Names, Google books Asteroids and comets rotation curves, CdR – Observatoire de Genève, Raoul Behrend Discovery Circumstances: Numbered Minor Planets (1)-(5000) – Minor Planet Center