171 Ophelia
Ophelia (minor planet designation: 171 Ophelia) is a large, dark Themistian asteroid that was discovered by French astronomer Alphonse Borrelly on 13 January 1877, and named after Ophelia in Shakespeare's Hamlet.[4]
Discovery | |
---|---|
Discovered by | A. Borrelly |
Discovery date | 13 January 1877 |
Designations | |
(171) Ophelia | |
Pronunciation | /oʊˈfiːliə/[1] |
Main belt (Themis) | |
Adjectives | Ophelian /ɒˈfiːliən/[2] |
Orbital characteristics[3] | |
Epoch 31 July 2016 (JD 2457600.5) | |
Uncertainty parameter 0 | |
Observation arc | 122.15 yr (44615 d) |
Aphelion | 3.5476 AU (530.71 Gm) |
Perihelion | 2.7175 AU (406.53 Gm) |
3.1326 AU (468.63 Gm) | |
Eccentricity | 0.13249 |
5.54 yr (2025.1 d) | |
11.164° | |
0° 10m 39.972s / day | |
Inclination | 2.5461° |
100.52° | |
56.849° | |
Physical characteristics | |
Mean radius | 58.345±1.8 km |
6.66535 h (0.277723 d) | |
0.0615±0.004 | |
C | |
8.31 | |
This asteroid is a member of the Themis family of asteroids that share similar orbital elements.[5] It probably has a primitive composition, similar to that of the carbonaceous chondrite meteorites.
A 1979 study of the Algol-like light curve produced by this asteroid concluded that it was possible to model the brightness variation by assuming a binary system with a circular orbit, a period of 13.146 hours, and an inclination of 15° to the line of sight from the Earth.[6] Photometric observations of this asteroid at the Leura Observatory in Leura, Australia during 2006 gave a rotation period of 6.6666 ± 0.0002 hours and a brightness variation of 0.50 ± 0.02 in magnitude. This is in agreement with previous studies.[7]
References
- Benjamin Smith (1903) The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- "Ophelian". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
- Yeomans, Donald K., "171 Ophelia", JPL Small-Body Database Browser, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, retrieved 6 May 2016.
- Schmadel, Lutz (2003). Dictionary of Minor Planet Names. Springer Science & Business Media. p. 30. ISBN 9783540002383. Retrieved 17 July 2019.
- Moore, Patrick; Rees, Robin, eds. (2011), Patrick Moore's Data Book of Astronomy (2nd ed.), Cambridge University Press, p. 165, ISBN 9781139495226.
- Wijesinghe, M. P.; Tedesco, E. F. (December 1979), "A test of plausibility of eclipsing binary asteroids", Icarus, 40 (3): 383–393, Bibcode:1979Icar...40..383W, doi:10.1016/0019-1035(79)90031-9.
- Oey, Julian (December 2006), "Lightcurves analysis of 10 asteroids from Leura Observatory", The Minor Planet Bulletin, 33 (4): 96–99, Bibcode:2006MPBu...33...96O.
External links
- 171 Ophelia at AstDyS-2, Asteroids—Dynamic Site
- 171 Ophelia at the JPL Small-Body Database