72 Feronia
72 Feronia (minor planet designation: 72 Feronia) is a quite large and dark main belt asteroid. It was the first asteroid discovery by C. H. F. Peters, on May 29, 1861,[6] from Hamilton College, New York State. It was initially thought that Peters had merely seen the already known asteroid 66 Maja, but T.H. Safford showed that it was a new body. Safford named it after Feronia, a Roman fertility goddess.[7]
![]() A three-dimensional model of 72 Feronia based on its light curve. | |
Discovery | |
---|---|
Discovered by | Christian Heinrich Friedrich Peters |
Discovery date | May 29, 1861 |
Designations | |
(72) Feronia | |
Pronunciation | /fɛˈroʊniə/[1] |
Named after | Feronia |
Main belt | |
Adjectives | Feronian |
Orbital characteristics | |
Epoch December 31, 2006 (JD 2454100.5) | |
Aphelion | 2.539 AU (379.8 Gm) |
Perihelion | 1.993 AU (298.1 Gm) |
2.266 AU (339.0 Gm) | |
Eccentricity | 0.121 |
1,246.123 days (3.41 a) | |
146.950° | |
Inclination | 5.417° |
208.137° | |
102.608° | |
Physical characteristics | |
Dimensions | 83.95±4.02 km[2] |
Mass | (3.32±8.49)×1018 kg[2] |
Mean density | 10.71±27.44 g/cm3[2] |
8.09068 h[3] | |
Pole ecliptic latitude | 287 or 102[3] |
Pole ecliptic longitude | −39 or −55[3] |
0.063[4] | |
TDG[5] | |
8.94 | |
This asteroid is orbiting the Sun with a period of 3.41 years, having a semimajor axis of 2.266 AU and an eccentricity of 0.121. The orbital plane is inclined by an angle of 5.4° to the plane of the ecliptic. This is a spectral type TDG asteroid with a cross-section size of 84 km. The asteroid has an estimated rotation period of 8.09 h. Hanuš et al. (2013) gives two possible solutions for the pole in ecliptic coordinates: (λ1, β1) = (287°, −39°) or (λ1, β1) = (102°, −55°). The estimated mass of 72 Feronia, and hence the density, has a large margin of error.[3]
References
- Noah Webster (1884) A Practical Dictionary of the English Language
- Carry, B. (December 2012), "Density of asteroids", Planetary and Space Science, vol. 73, pp. 98–118, arXiv:1203.4336, Bibcode:2012P&SS...73...98C, doi:10.1016/j.pss.2012.03.009. See Table 1.
- Hanuš, J.; et al. (September 2013), "Sizes of main-belt asteroids by combining shape models and Keck adaptive optics observations", Icarus, 226 (1): 1045−1057, arXiv:1308.0446, Bibcode:2013Icar..226.1045H, doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2013.07.023.
- "Asteroid Data Sets". Archived from the original on 17 December 2009. Retrieved 13 January 2007.
- Sheehan, William (1999), "Christian Heinrich Friedrich Peters", Biographical Memoirs, vol. 76, National Academies Press, p. 289, ISBN 0309064341.
- Schmadel, Lutz (2003). Dictionary of minor planet names (fifth ed.). Germany: Springer. p. 22. ISBN 3-540-00238-3. Retrieved 31 December 2008.
External links
- 72 Feronia at AstDyS-2, Asteroids—Dynamic Site
- 72 Feronia at the JPL Small-Body Database