171 Ophelia

171 Ophelia
Discovery
Discovered by A. Borrelly
Discovery date 13 January 1877
Designations
Main belt (Themis)
Orbital characteristics[1]
Epoch 31 July 2016 (JD 2457600.5)
Uncertainty parameter 0
Observation arc 122.15 yr (44615 d)
Aphelion 3.5476 AU (530.71 Gm)
Perihelion 2.7175 AU (406.53 Gm)
3.1326 AU (468.63 Gm)
Eccentricity 0.13249
5.54 yr (2025.1 d)
11.164°
 10m 39.972s / day
Inclination 2.5461°
100.52°
56.849°
Earth MOID 1.72703 AU (258.360 Gm)
Jupiter MOID 1.44438 AU (216.076 Gm)
Jupiter Tisserand parameter 3.198
Physical characteristics
Mean radius
58.345±1.8 km
6.66535 h (0.277723 d)
0.0615±0.004
C
8.31

    171 Ophelia is a large, dark Themistian asteroid that was discovered by French astronomer Alphonse Borrelly on January 13, 1877, and named after the fictional character Ophelia in Shakespeare's play Hamlet.

    This asteroid is a member of the Themis family of asteroids that share similar orbital elements.[2] It probably has a primitive composition, similar to that of the carbonaceous chondrite meteorites.

    A 1979 study of the Algol-like light curve produced by this asteroid concluded that it was possible to model the brightness variation by assuming a binary system with a circular orbit, a period of 13.146 hours, and an inclination of 15° to the line of sight from the Earth.[3] Photometric observations of this asteroid at the Leura Observatory in Leura, Australia during 2006 gave a rotation period of 6.6666 ± 0.0002 hours and a brightness variation of 0.50 ± 0.02 in magnitude. This is in agreement with previous studies.[4]

    Ophelia is also the name of a moon of Uranus.

    References

    1. Yeomans, Donald K., "171 Ophelia", JPL Small-Body Database Browser (NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory), retrieved 6 May 2016.
    2. Moore, Patrick; Rees, Robin, eds. (2011), Patrick Moore's Data Book of Astronomy (2nd ed.), Cambridge University Press, p. 165.
    3. Wijesinghe, M. P.; Tedesco, E. F. (December 1979), "A test of plausibility of eclipsing binary asteroids", Icarus 40, pp. 383–393, Bibcode:1979Icar...40..383W, doi:10.1016/0019-1035(79)90031-9.
    4. Oey, Julian (December 2006), "Lightcurves analysis of 10 asteroids from Leura Observatory", The Minor Planet Bulletin 33 (4), pp. 96–99, Bibcode:2006MPBu...33...96O.

    External links


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