137 Meliboea

137 Meliboea
Discovery
Discovered by Johann Palisa
Discovery date April 21, 1874
Designations
1958 UE, 1962 GB, A923 FA
Main belt, meliboea family
Orbital characteristics[1]
Epoch December 31, 2006 (JD 2454100.5)
Aphelion 569.016 Gm (3.804 AU)
Perihelion 364.057 Gm (2.434 AU)
466.536 Gm (3.119 AU)
Eccentricity 0.220
2011.587 d (5.51 a)
16.66 km/s
314.941°
Inclination 13.418°
202.446°
106.741°
Physical characteristics
Dimensions 145.92 ± 3.58[2] km
Mass (7.27 ± 3.07) × 1018 kg[2]
Mean density
4.46 ± 1.91[2] g/cm3
0.0406 m/s²
0.0769 km/s
25.676[1][3] h
Albedo 0.0492 ± 0.0128[4]
Temperature ~158 K
Spectral type
C[4] (Tholen)
8.10[4]

    137 Meliboea is a large, dark main-belt asteroid that was discovered by Austrian astronomer J. Palisa on April 21, 1874, the second of his many asteroid discoveries, and named after one of the three Meliboeas in Greek mythology. The largest body in the Meliboea family of asteroids that share similar orbital elements, only 791 Ani approaches its size. It is classified as a C-type asteroid and may be composed of carbonaceous materials.

    Photometric observations of this asteroid made at the Torino Observatory in Italy during 1990–1991 were used to determine a synodic rotation period of 15.28 ± 0.02 hours.[5] A 2009 study at the Organ Mesa Observatory in Las Cruces, New Mexico found a period of 25.676 ± 0.001 hours and a brightness variation of 0.16 ± 0.02 in magnitude. They ruled out a period of 15 hours determined in previous studies.[3]

    During 2002, 137 Meliboea was observed by radar from the Arecibo Observatory. The return signal matched an effective diameter of 144 ± 16 km. This is consistent with the asteroid dimensions computed through other means.[6]

    References

    1. 1 2 Yeomans, Donald K., "137 Meliboea", JPL Small-Body Database Browser (NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory), retrieved 2013-03-25.
    2. 1 2 3 Carry, B. (December 2012), "Density of asteroids", Planetary and Space Science 73, pp. 98–118, arXiv:1203.4336, Bibcode:2012P&SS...73...98C, doi:10.1016/j.pss.2012.03.009. See Table 1.
    3. 1 2 Pilcher, Frederick; Jardine, Don (April 2009), "Period Determinations for 31 Euphrosyne, 35 Leukothea 56 Melete, 137 Meliboea, 155 Scylla, and 264 Libussa", The Minor Planet Bulletin 36 (2): 52–54, Bibcode:2009MPBu...36...52P
    4. 1 2 3 Pravec, P.; et al. (May 2012), "Absolute Magnitudes of Asteroids and a Revision of Asteroid Albedo Estimates from WISE Thermal Observations", Asteroids, Comets, Meteors 2012, Proceedings of the conference held May 16–20, 2012 in Niigata, Japan (1667), Bibcode:2012LPICo1667.6089P.
    5. di Martino, M.; et al. (February 1994), "Lightcurves and rotational periods of nine main belt asteroids", Icarus 107 (2), pp. 269–275, Bibcode:1994Icar..107..269D, doi:10.1006/icar.1994.1022.
    6. Magri, Christopher; et al. (January 2007), "A radar survey of main-belt asteroids: Arecibo observations of 55 objects during 1999–2003", Icarus 186 (1): 126–151, Bibcode:2007Icar..186..126M, doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2006.08.018

    External links


    This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Thursday, May 05, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.