45 Eugenia

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45 Eugenia
Sidereal rotation period
0.2375 d (5.699 h)[10]
117±10°
−30±10°[6]
124±10°
0.065 (calculated)[7]
0.040±0.002[5]
F[11]
7.46[5]

Eugenia (

moon orbiting it. It was also the second triple asteroid to be discovered, after 87 Sylvia
.

Discovery

Eugenia was discovered on 27 June 1857 by the Franco-German amateur astronomer

Wilhelm Forster in Berlin, based on three observations in July, 1857.[14]

The asteroid was named by its discoverer after

Empress Eugenia di Montijo, the wife of Napoleon III.[12] It was the first asteroid to be definitely named after a real person, rather than a figure from classical legend.[15]

Physical characteristics

Eugenia is a large asteroid, with a

retrograde
, rotating backward to its orbital plane.

Satellite system

Petit-Prince

Main article: Petit-Prince (moon)

In November 1998, astronomers at the

asteroid moon had been discovered by a ground-based telescope. The moon is much smaller than Eugenia, about 13 km in diameter
, and takes five days to complete an orbit around it.

The discoverers chose the name "Petit-Prince" (formally "(45) Eugenia I Petit-Prince"). This name refers to Empress Eugenia's son, the

Prince Imperial. However, the discoverers also intended an allusion to the children's novella The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, which is about a young prince who lives on an asteroid.[17]

S/2004 (45) 1

A second, smaller (estimated diameter of 6 km) satellite that orbits closer to Eugenia than Petit-Prince has since been discovered and provisionally named S/2004 (45) 1.[18] It was discovered by analyses of three images acquired in February 2004 from the 8.2 m VLT "Yepun" at the European Southern Observatory (ESO) Cerro Paranal, in Chile.[19] The discovery was announced in IAUC 8817, on 7 March 2007 by Franck Marchis and his IMCCE collaborators. It orbits the asteroid at about ~700 km, with an orbital period of 4.7 days.[18]

Notes

  1. ^ Uncertainty calculated from uncertainties in the orbit of Petit-Prince.
  2. ^ a b On the extremities of the long axis.

See also

  • asteroid moon
    system catalogued by astronomers
  • Florence, another dual-moon asteroid confirmed only in September 2017.

References

  1. ^ "Discovery Circumstances: Numbered Minor Planets". IAU Minor Planet Center. Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. 9 February 2010. Archived from the original on 10 May 2008. Retrieved 12 August 2010.
  2. ^ "Eugenia". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
  3. ^ "ASTORB". Orbital elements database. Lowell Observatory.
  4. ^ a b c Baer, Jim (2008). "Recent Asteroid Mass Determinations". Personal Website. Archived from the original on 2 July 2013. Retrieved 7 December 2008.
  5. ^ a b c d "Supplemental IRAS minor planet survey". Planetary Science Institute. Archived from the original on 17 August 2009.
  6. ^ a b c Kaasalainen, M.; et al. (2002). "Models of Twenty Asteroids from Photometric Data" (PDF). Icarus. 159 (2): 369–395.
    doi:10.1006/icar.2002.6907
    .
  7. ^ a b c d P. Vernazza et al. (2021) VLT/SPHERE imaging survey of the largest main-belt asteroids: Final results and synthesis. Astronomy & Astrophysics 54, A56
  8. ^ Marchis, F. "synthesis of several observations". Berkeley. Archived from the original on 13 September 2006.
  9. ^ a b Marchis, F.; et al. (2004). "Fine Analysis of 121 Hermione, 45 Eugenia, and 90 Antiope Binary Asteroid Systems With AO Observations". Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society. 36: 1180.
    Bibcode:2004DPS....36.4602M
    .
  10. ^ "PDS lightcurve data". Planetary Science Institute. Archived from the original on 9 April 2009.
  11. ^ "PDS node taxonomy database". Planetary Science Institute. Archived from the original on 5 August 2009.
  12. ^ a b Schmadel, Lutz D. (2003). Dictionary of minor planet names. Physics and astronomy online library (5th ed.). Springer. p. 19.
    ISBN 3-540-00238-3
    .
  13. ^ J. C. (1867). "Obituary: Herman Goldschmidt". Memoirs of the Royal Astronomical Society. 36: 114–117. Retrieved 13 August 2010.
  14. ^ Goldschmidt, H. (July 1857). "New Planet (45)".
    doi:10.1093/mnras/17.9.263b
    .
  15. ^ Tobin, William (2003). The life and science of Léon Foucault: the man who proved the earth rotates.
    ISBN 0-521-80855-3
    .
  16. ^ A. S. Rivkin (2002). "Calculated Water Concentrations on C Class Asteroids" (PDF). Lunar and Planetary Institute. Retrieved 22 May 2008.
  17. ^ William J. Merlin et al., "On a Permanent Name for Asteroid S/1998(45)1". 26 May 2000.
  18. ^
    Bibcode:2007IAUC.8817....1M
    .
  19. ^ "IMCCÉ Breaking News". Archived from the original on 27 September 2007. Retrieved 30 April 2019.

External links

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