119 Althaea
Minorplanetyes
Background
  1. D6D6D6
DiscovererJames Craig Watson
Discovered3 April 1872
Mpc name(119) Althaea
Alt namesA872 GA; 1972 KO
Pronounced/ælθiːə/[1]
Named afterAlthaea
Mp categoryMain belt
Epoch31 July 2016 (JD 2457600.5)
Semimajor2.58147 AU (386.182 Gm)
Perihelion2.37335 AU (355.048 Gm)
Aphelion2.7896 AU (417.32 Gm)
Eccentricity0.080623
Period4.15 yr (1515.0 d)
Inclination5.7831°
Asc node203.674°
Arg peri170.021°
Mean anomaly114.868°
Avg speed18.51 km/s
Dimensions57.30 ± 1.1 km
Mass2.0×1017 kg
Surface grav0.0160 m/s2
Escape velocity0.0303 km/s
Rotation11.484 h[2][3]
Abs magnitude8.42
Albedo0.2306 ± 0.010
Single temperature~173 K
Mean motion/ day
Observation arc143.99 yr (52593 d)
Uncertainty0
Moid1.37297 AU (205.393 Gm)
Jupiter moid2.58409 AU (386.574 Gm)
Tisserand3.413

119 Althaea is a main-belt asteroid that was discovered by Canadian-American astronomer J. C. Watson on April 3, 1872,[3] and named after Althaea, the mother of Meleager in Greek mythology. Two occultations by Althaea were observed in 2002, only a month apart.[citation needed]

This object is orbiting the Sun at a distance of 2.58 AU with an eccentricity of 0.08, bringing it as close as 2.37 AU and taking it as far as 2.79 AU over the course of its 4.15 year orbital period. The orbital plane is inclined at an angle of 5.78° relative to the plane of the ecliptic.

Based upon its spectrum, this is classified as an S-type asteroid.[4] Using infrared measurements, its diameter was measured as around 57 km. Photometric observations made in 1988 at the Félix Aguilar Observatory produced a light curve with a period of 11.484 hours with a brightness variation of 0.365 in magnitude.[3]

References

  1. ^ Noah Webster (1884) A Practical Dictionary of the English Language
  2. ^ Yeomans, Donald K., "119 Althaea", JPL Small-Body Database Browser, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, retrieved 12 May 2016
  3. ^ Hutton, R. G. (June 1990), "V+B Photoelectric Photometry of Asteroid 119 Althaea", The Minor Planet Bulletin. Vol. 17, pp. 15–17, Bibcode:1990MPBu...17...15H
  4. ^ DeMeo, Francesca E. et al. (July 2009), "An extension of the Bus asteroid taxonomy into the near-infrared", Icarus. Vol. 202, no. 1, pp. 160–180, Bibcode:2009Icar..202..160D. doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2009.02.005, archived from the original on 2014-03-17, retrieved 2013-04-08 See appendix A.