3000 Leonardo

It was discovered on 2 March 1981, by American astronomer Schelte Bus at the Siding Spring Observatory in Australia.

[15] It was one of 450 minor planets whose location was checked in a large observation campaign involving multiple sites and astronomers.

[2] The asteroid is one of several early "kilo-numbered" minor planets that were dedicated to renowned scientists or institutions including:[18] The sequence continues with the asteroids 5000 IAU (for the International Astronomical Union), 6000 United Nations (for the United Nations), 7000 Curie (for the pioneers on radioactivity, Marie and Pierre Curie), and 8000 Isaac Newton (for Isaac Newton),[18] while 9000 Hal (after HAL 9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey) and 10000 Myriostos (after the Greek word for ten-thousandth, which is meant to honor all astronomers) were named based on their direct numeric accordance.

[3] In October 2015, a rotational lightcurve of Leonardo was obtained from photometric observations by astronomers at the University of Maryland using a 0.43-meter telescope at Mayhill, New Mexico (H10).

Lightcurve analysis gave a rotation period of 7.524±0.021 hours with a brightness variation of 0.26 magnitude (U=2).

[11] The result supersedes a tentative period determination by astronomers at Lindby Observatory (K60) which gave a spin rate of 8.54 and an amplitude of 0.20 magnitude (U=1).