3494 Purple Mountain

3494 Purple Mountain

Discovery
Discovered by	Purple Mountain Observatory
Discovery date	7 December 1980
Designations
Named after	Purple Mountain Observatory
Alternative names	1980 XW; 1962 WV1; 1969 UD; 1972 OA
Minor planet category	Main belt (Vesta family)
Orbital characteristics[1]
Epoch 13 January 2016 (JD 2457400.5)
Uncertainty parameter 0
Observation arc	23355 days (63.94 yr)
Aphelion	2.65710 AU (397.497 Gm)
Perihelion	2.04260 AU (305.569 Gm)
Semi-major axis	2.34985 AU (351.533 Gm)
Eccentricity	0.13075
Orbital period	3.60 yr (1315.7 d)
Average orbital speed	19.35 km/s
Mean anomaly	18.1169°
Mean motion	0° 16^m 25.021^s / day
Inclination	5.83091°
Longitude of ascending node	234.425°
Argument of perihelion	72.8236°
Earth MOID	1.03507 AU (154.844 Gm)
Jupiter MOID	2.55355 AU (382.006 Gm)
Jupiter Tisserand parameter	3.540
Physical characteristics
Temperature	~182 K (estimate)
Spectral type	V-type asteroid
Absolute magnitude (H)	12.7

3494 Purple Mountain is a small asteroid in the asteroid belt. It is not purple; its unusual name comes from the Purple Mountain Observatory in China, where it was rediscovered in 1980, as it had been seen but lost several times since 1962. (See lost asteroids.)

Purple Mountain is a vestoid, a fragment blasted off the giant asteroid 4 Vesta by the impact that formed the Vestian collisional family. A spectroscopic analysis showed it to have a composition very similar to the cumulate eucrite meteorites.^[2]

References

1. "3494 Purple Mountain (1980 XW)". JPL Small-Body Database. NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Retrieved 14 April 2016.
2. Kelley, Michael S.; Vilas, Faith; Gaffey, Michael J.; Hicks, Anthony; Abell, Paul A.; Lederer, Susan M., "Mineralogical Analyses of Two Small Vesta Family Asteroids", SAO/NASA ADS—Astronomy Abstract Service, retrieved August 2015

External links

• 3494 Purple Mountain at the JPL Small-Body Database

• Discovery · Orbit diagram · Orbital elements · Physical parameters