Astronomy:35 Leukothea

From HandWiki
35 Leukothea 24px (historical)
Three-dimensional model of 35 Leukothea created based on light-curve
Discovery
Discovered byR. Luther
Discovery dateApril 19, 1855
Designations
Designation
(35) Leukothea
Pronunciation/ljˈkɒθiə/[1]
Named afterΛευκοθέα Leykothea
1948 DC; 1950 RS1; 1976 WH
Minor planet categoryMain belt
AdjectivesLeukothean /ljˈkɒθiən/
Orbital characteristics[2]
Epoch December 31, 2006 (JD 2454100.5)
|{{{apsis}}}|helion}}549.374 Gm (3.672 AU)
|{{{apsis}}}|helion}}345.074 Gm (2.307 AU)
447.224 Gm (2.990 AU)
Eccentricity0.228
Orbital period1,887.983 d (5.17 a)
Average Orbital speed17.00 km/s
Mean anomaly77.469°
Inclination7.938°
Longitude of ascending node353.817°
213.962°
Physical characteristics
Mean diameter103.05 ± 1.2 km[3]
Mass(1.014 ± 0.491/0.321)×1018 kg[3]
Mean density1.769 ± 0.857/0.56 g/cm3[3]
~0.0513 km/s
Rotation period31.900[4] h
Albedo0.066[5]
Physics~162 K
Spectral type
C
Absolute magnitude (H)8.5


35 Leukothea is a large, dark asteroid from the asteroid belt. It was discovered by German astronomer Karl Theodor Robert Luther on April 19, 1855,[6] and named after Leukothea, a sea goddess in Greek mythology. Its historical symbol was a pharos (ancient lighthouse); it was encoded in Unicode 17.0 as U+1CED0 𜻐 (12px).[7][8]

Leukothea is a C-type asteroid in the Tholen classification system,[2] suggesting a carbonaceous composition. It is orbiting the Sun with a period of 5.17 years and has a cross-sectional size of 103.1 km.

Photometric observations of this asteroid from the Organ Mesa Observatory in Las Cruces, New Mexico during 2010 gave a light curve with a rotation period of 31.900±0.001 hours and a brightness variability of 0.42±0.04 in magnitude. This is consistent with previous studies in 1990 and 2008.[4]

The computed Lyapunov time for this asteroid is 20,000 years, indicating that it occupies a chaotic orbit that will change randomly over time because of gravitational perturbations of the planets.[9]

References

  1. "Leukothea". Dictionary.com Unabridged. Random House. https://www.dictionary.com/browse/Leukothea. 
  2. 2.0 2.1 Yeomans, Donald K., "35 Leukothea", JPL Small-Body Database Browser (NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory), https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=35, retrieved 2013-04-07. 
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 Fienga, A.; Avdellidou, C.; Hanuš, J. (February 2020). "Asteroid masses obtained with INPOP planetary ephemerides". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 492 (1). doi:10.1093/mnras/stz3407. https://academic.oup.com/mnras/article/492/1/589/5658701. 
  4. 4.0 4.1 Pilcher, Frederick (July 2010), "Period Determinations for 11 Parthenope, 35 Leukothea, 38 Leda, 111 Ate, 194 Prokne, 262 Valda, 728 Leonisis, and 747 Winchester", The Minor Planet Bulletin 37 (3): pp. 119–122, Bibcode2010MPBu...37..119P. 
  5. Asteroid Data Archive, Planetary Science Institute, http://www.psi.edu/pds/archive/astdata04/simps04/diamalb.tab, retrieved 2008-11-03. 
  6. "Numbered Minor Planets 1–5000", Discovery Circumstances (IAU Minor Planet center), https://www.minorplanetcenter.net/iau/lists/NumberedMPs000001.html, retrieved 2013-04-07. 
  7. Bala, Gavin Jared; Miller, Kirk (18 September 2023). "Unicode request for historical asteroid symbols". Unicode. https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2023/23207-historical-asteroids.pdf. 
  8. "Miscellaneous Symbols Supplement". The Unicode Consortium. 2025. https://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U1CEC0.pdf. 
  9. Šidlichovský, M. (1999), Svoren, J.; Pittich, E. M.; Rickman, H., eds., "Resonances and chaos in the asteroid belt", Evolution and source regions of asteroids and comets : proceedings of the 173rd colloquium of the International Astronomical Union, held in Tatranska Lomnica, Slovak Republic, August 24–28, 1998: pp. 297–308, Bibcode1999esra.conf..297S.