2296 Kugultinov

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2296 Kugultinov is a carbon-rich asteroid in the outer part of the main asteroid belt. It belongs to the Themis family and is about 20 kilometers across. It was discovered on 18 January 1975 by Russian astronomer Lyudmila Chernykh at the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory in Nauchnij and is named after Soviet poet David Kugultinov.

It orbits the Sun every 5.67 years, traveling between 2.65 and 3.71 astronomical units from the Sun. The orbit is fairly circular with a small eccentricity of about 0.17 and a slight tilt of about 1.25 degrees. The asteroid’s diameter is estimated to be between 15 and 22 kilometers, commonly around 20 km, and its surface has a low albedo of roughly 0.08 to 0.12, indicating a dark, carbon-rich composition. Kugultinov is a C-type asteroid and a member of the Themis family. Its rotation period is about 8.43 hours, though some observations have yielded a longer solution around 16.85 hours; the shorter period is generally preferred.