Astronomy:5 Astraea

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Short description: Large asteroid
5 Astraea The historic planetary symbol for 5 Astraea (historical astronomical), The modern astrological symbol for 5 Astraea (modern astrological)
5Astraea (Lightcurve Inversion).png
Lightcurve-based 3D-model of Astraea
Discovery[1]
Discovered byK. L. Hencke
Discovery siteDriesen Obs.
Discovery date8 December 1845
Designations
(5) Astraea
Pronunciation/æˈstrə/[5]
Named afterAstraea (Greek goddess)[2]
1969 SE
Minor planet categorymain-belt[1][3] · (middle)
Astraea[4]
AdjectivesAstraean
Orbital characteristics[3]
Epoch 23 March 2018 (JD 2458200.5)
Uncertainty parameter 0
Observation arc171.93 yr (62,799 d)
|{{{apsis}}}|helion}}3.0659 AU
|{{{apsis}}}|helion}}2.0810 AU
2.5735 AU
Eccentricity0.1914
Orbital period4.13 yr (1,508 d)
Mean anomaly186.83°
Mean motion0° 14m 19.32s / day
Inclination5.3677°
Longitude of ascending node141.58°
358.75°
Proper orbital elements[6]
Proper semi-major axis2.5761849 AU
Proper eccentricity0.1980486
Proper inclination4.5118628°
Proper mean motion87.046396 deg / yr
4.13573 yr
(1510.574 d)
Precession of perihelion52.210903 arcsec / yr
Precession of the ascending node−57.357951 arcsec / yr
Physical characteristics
Dimensions167 km × 123 km × 82 km[7]
Mean diameter119 km[7]
Surface area48 300 km2[8]
Volume882 000 km3[8]
Mass2.9×1018 kg[9][10]
(assumed)[11]
Mean density~3.3 g/cm3
Rotation period0.700 03 d (16.801 h)[7]
Equatorial rotation velocity6.44 m/s[8]
Geometric albedo0.227[12]
S
Apparent magnitude8.74 to 12.89
Absolute magnitude (H)6.85
Angular diameter0.15" to 0.041"


Astraea (/æˈstrə/) (minor planet designation: 5 Astraea) is an asteroid in the asteroid belt. Its surface is highly reflective and its composition is probably a mixture of nickeliron with silicates of magnesium and iron. It is an S-type asteroid in the Tholen classification system.[3]

Discovery and name

Astraea was the fifth asteroid discovered, on 8 December 1845, by Karl Ludwig Hencke and named for Astraea, a Greek goddess of justice named after the stars. It was his first of two asteroid discoveries. The second was 6 Hebe. A German amateur astronomer and post office headmaster, Hencke was looking for 4 Vesta when he stumbled on Astraea. The King of Prussia awarded him an annual pension of 1,200 marks for the discovery.[13]

Hencke's symbol for Astraea is an inverted anchor, in the pipeline for Unicode 17.0 as U+1F778 🝸 (Astraea symbol (fixed width).svg),[14][15] though given Astraea's role with justice and precision, it is perhaps a stylized set of scales, or a typographic substitute for one.[16][17] This symbol is no longer used. The astrological symbol is a percent sign, encoded specifically at U+2BD9 ⯙.[18] The modern astronomical symbol is a simple encircled 5 (⑤).

For 38 years after the discovery of the fourth known asteroid, Vesta, in 1807, no further asteroids were discovered.[19] After the discovery of Astraea, 8 more were discovered in the following 5 years, and 24 were found in the 5 years after that. The discovery of Astraea proved to be the starting point for the eventual demotion of the four original asteroids (which were regarded as planets at the time)[19] to their current status, as it became apparent that these four were only the largest of a new type of celestial body with thousands of members.

Characteristics

Photometry indicates prograde rotation, that the north pole points in the direction of right ascension 9 h 52 min, declination 73° with a 5° uncertainty.[7] This gives an axial tilt of about 33°. With an apparent magnitude of 8.7 (on a favorable opposition on 15 February 2016), it is only the seventeenth-brightest main-belt asteroid, and fainter than, for example, 192 Nausikaa or even 324 Bamberga (at rare near-perihelion oppositions).

An stellar occultation on 6 June 2008 allowed Astraea's diameter to be estimated; it was found to be 115 ± 6 km.[20]

Left: A size comparison of the first 10 numbered asteroids profiled against Earth's Moon.
Right: The orbit of 5 Astraea in white compared with those of Earth, Mars and Jupiter.

See also

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 "5 Astraea". Minor Planet Center. https://www.minorplanetcenter.net/db_search/show_object?object_id=5. 
  2. Schmadel, Lutz D. (2007). "(5) Astraea". Dictionary of Minor Planet Names – (5) Astraea. Springer Berlin Heidelberg. p. 15. doi:10.1007/978-3-540-29925-7_6. ISBN 978-3-540-00238-3. 
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 "JPL Small-Body Database Browser: 5 Astraea". Jet Propulsion Laboratory. https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=2000005. 
  4. "Asteroid (5) Astraea – Proper Elements". AstDyS-2, Asteroids – Dynamic Site. https://newton.spacedys.com/astdys/index.php?n=5&pc=1.1.6. 
  5. "Astraea". Astraea. Oxford University Press. http://www.lexico.com/definition/Astraea. 
  6. "AstDyS-2 Astraea Synthetic Proper Orbital Elements". Department of Mathematics, University of Pisa, Italy. https://newton.spacedys.com/astdys/index.php?pc=1.1.6&n=5. 
  7. 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 M. J. López-Gonzáles & E. Rodríguez Lightcurves and poles of seven asteroids, Planetary and Space Science, Vol. 53, p. 1147 (2005).
  8. 8.0 8.1 8.2 Calculated based on the known parameters
  9. Michalak, G. (2001). "Determination of asteroid masses". Astronomy & Astrophysics 374 (2): 703–711. doi:10.1051/0004-6361:20010731. Bibcode2001A&A...374..703M. 
  10. (Mass estimate of Astra 0.015 / Mass of Ceres 4.75) * Mass of Ceres 9.43E+20 = 2.977E+18
  11. Michalak2001 (Table 6) assumed masses of perturbing asteroids used in calculations of perturbations of the test asteroids.
  12. Tedesco, E. F.; Noah, P. V.; Noah, M.; Price, S. D. (October 2004). "IRAS Minor Planet Survey V6.0". NASA Planetary Data System 12: IRAS-A-FPA-3-RDR-IMPS-V6.0. Bibcode2004PDSS...12.....T. https://sbnarchive.psi.edu/pds3/iras/IRAS_A_FPA_3_RDR_IMPS_V6_0/data/diamalb.tab. Retrieved 22 October 2019. 
  13. "Dawn Community". NASA. http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/DawnCommunity/flashbacks/fb_09.asp. 
  14. 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. 
  15. Unicode. "Proposed New Characters: The Pipeline". The Unicode Consortium. https://unicode.org/alloc/Pipeline.html. 
  16. Bericht über die zur Bekanntmachung geeigneten Verhandlungen der Königl. Preuss. Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin. Deutsche Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin; Königlich Preussische Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin. 1845. p. 406. https://books.google.com/books?id=ZM8DAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA406. "Der Planet hat mit Einwilligung des Entdeckers den Namen Astraea erhalten, und sein Zeichen wird nach dem Wunsche des Hr. Hencke ein umgekehrter Anker sein." 
  17. Schmadel, Lutz D. (2003). Dictionary of Minor Planet Names. Springer. pp. 15–18. ISBN 978-0-354-06174-2. 
  18. Faulks, David (2016-05-28). "L2/16-080: Additional Symbols for Astrology". https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2016/16080r-add-astrology.pdf. 
  19. 19.0 19.1 "The Planet Hygea". spaceweather.com. 1849. http://spaceweather.com/swpod2006/13sep06/Pollock1.jpg. 
  20. Ďurech, Josef; Kaasalainen, Mikko; Herald, David; Dunham, David; Timerson, Brad; Hanuš, Josef et al. (2011). "Combining asteroid models derived by lightcurve inversion with asteroidal occultation silhouettes". Icarus 214 (2): 652–670. doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2011.03.016. Bibcode2011Icar..214..652D. http://astro.troja.mff.cuni.cz/projects/asteroids3D/download/durech_et_al_2011_occ_paper.pdf. Retrieved 26 January 2012. 

External links