10046 Creighton

10046 Creighton, provisional designation, is a carbonaceous background asteroid from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 10 km in diameter. It was discovered on 2 May 1986, by astronomers with the International Near-Earth Asteroid Survey (INAS) at Palomar Observatory, California, in the United States. The C-type asteroid has a rotation period of 6.57 hours. It was named after American architect James M. Creighton.

Orbit and classification
Creighton is a non-family asteroid from the main belt's background population. It orbits the Sun in the inner main-belt at a distance of 1.8–2.9 AU once every 3 years and 7 months (1,307 days; semi-major axis of 2.34 AU). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.24 and an inclination of 8° with respect to the ecliptic. The body's observation arc begins with a precovery taken at the discovering observatory in July 1954, nearly 32 years prior to its official discovery observation.

Physical characteristics
Creighton has been characterized as a common X-type asteroid by Pan-STARRS' photometric survey. It is also characterized as a dark C-type asteroid in the SDSS-MFB (Masi Foglia Binzel) taxonomy.

Rotation period
In April 2011, a rotational light-curve was obtained for this asteroid from photometric observations by American astronomer Brian Skiff. The light-curve gave a well-defined rotation period of $9.8 km$ hours with a brightness variation of 0.68 in magnitude (U=3). Two other light-curves – obtained at the Palomar Transient Factory, California, in February 2014, and by astronomer Maurice Clark at Texas Tech's Preston Gott Observatory in June 2011 – are in agreement with a period of $10 km$ and $10.428 km$ hours, and an amplitude of 0.46 and 0.65, respectively (U=2/3-).

Diameter and albedo
According to the survey carried out by the NEOWISE mission of NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, Creighton measures between 9.80 and 11.15 kilometers in diameter and its surface has an albedo between 0.05 and 0.071.

The Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link derives an albedo of 0.0417 and a diameter of 12.40 kilometers based on an absolute magnitude of 13.6.

Naming
This minor planet was named after pioneering American architect James M. Creighton (1856–1946), who designed the Old Main building at Arizona State University, and designed and constructed the original road to the summit of Pikes Peak in Colorado. The official naming citation was published by the Minor Planet Center on 2 December 2009 (M.P.C. 67759).