50 Virginia

50 Virginia
A three-dimensional model of 50 Virginia based on its lightcurve
Discovery
Discovered byKarl Theodor Robert Luther, James Ferguson
Discovery date4 October 1857
Designations
Pronunciation/vərˈdʒɪniə/
Named after
Verginia or Virginia
Main belt
Orbital characteristics
Epoch 31 December 2006 (JD 2454100.5)
Aphelion509.817 million km (3.408 AU)
Perihelion283.389 million km (1.894 AU)
396.603 million km (2.651 AU)
Eccentricity0.285
1,576.682 d (4.32 a)
210.994°
Inclination2.834°
173.773°
199.961°
Physical characteristics
Dimensions99.42±0.46 km
(composite estimate)
99.8 km
Mass(4.6±1.3)×1017 kg
Mean density
1.50 g/cm3
14.31 h
0.036
Ch
9.24

50 Virginia is a large, very dark main belt asteroid. It was discovered by American astronomer James Ferguson on 4 October 1857, from the United States Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C. German astronomer Robert Luther discovered it independently on 19 October from Düsseldorf, and his discovery was announced first.

The reason for Virginia's name is not known; it may be named after Verginia, the Roman noblewoman slain by her father, but it may alternatively have been named after the American state of Virginia.

Photometric observations of this asteroid at the Organ Mesa Observatory in Las Cruces, New Mexico, during 2008 gave a light curve with a period of 14.315 ± 0.001 hours and a brightness variation of 0.19 ± 0.02 in magnitude. The shape of the light curve at the maximum was found to change with phase angle.

The orbit of 50 Virginia places it in an 11:4 mean motion resonance with the planet Jupiter. The computed Lyapunov time for this asteroid is only 10,000 years, indicating that it occupies a chaotic orbit that will change randomly over time because of gravitational perturbations of the planets.

Virginia has been studied by radar.

Notes

  1. ↑ Calculated from its standard gravitational parameter GM = 0.031±0.009 km3/s2.
  2. ↑ Assuming a diameter of 84.1 km.

References

  1. 1 2 "Numbered Minor Planets 1–5000", Discovery Circumstances, IAU Minor Planet center, retrieved 7 April 2013.
  2. ↑ Noah Webster (1884) A Practical Dictionary of the English Language
  3. ↑ Carry, B. (December 2012), "Density of asteroids", Planetary and Space Science, 73 (1): 98–118, arXiv:1203.4336, Bibcode:2012P&SS...73...98C, doi:10.1016/j.pss.2012.03.009, S2CID 119226456. See Table 1.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 Yeomans, Donald K., "50 Virginia", JPL Small-Body Database Browser, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, retrieved 7 April 2013.
  5. ↑ Fuentes-Muñoz, Oscar; Farnocchia, Davide; Giorgini, Jon D.; Park, Ryan S. (1 December 2025). "Asteroid Mass Estimation by Mutual Perturbations During Close Encounters After Gaia Focused Product Release". The Astronomical Journal. 170 (6): 353. Bibcode:2025AJ....170..353F. doi:10.3847/1538-3881/ae0cc9. ISSN 0004-6256. S2CID 283347135.
  6. ↑ Asteroid Data Sets Archived 17 December 2009 at the Wayback Machine
  7. ↑ Schmadel, Lutz D. (2003). Dictionary of Minor Planet Names. Springer Science & Business Media. p. 20. ISBN 978-3-540-00238-3.
  8. ↑ Pilcher, Frederick (January 2009), "Period Determinations for 33 Polyhymnia, 38 Leda, 50 Virginia, 189 Phthia, and 290 Bruna", The Minor Planet Bulletin, 36 (1): 25–27, Bibcode:2009MPBu...36...25P.
  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, Bibcode:1999esra.conf..297S.
  10. ↑ "Radar-Detected Asteroids and Comets". NASA/JPL Asteroid Radar Research. Retrieved 30 October 2011.