47 Aglaja

47 Aglaja
An image of Aglaja taken by the SDSS telescope on 13 October 1999. The minor planet was 1.7 AU from Earth at the time of photography.
Discovery
Discovered byRobert Luther
Discovery dateSeptember 15, 1857
Designations
(47) Aglaja
Pronunciation/əˈɡleɪ.ə/[1]
Named after
Aglaea
Aglaia[2]
Main belt
AdjectivesAglajan
Orbital characteristics[3]
Epoch December 31, 2006 (JD 2454100.5)
Aphelion488.740 Gm (3.267 AU)
Perihelion372.222 Gm (2.488 AU)
430.481 Gm (2.878 AU)
Eccentricity0.135
1,782.960 d (4.88 a)
225.007°
Inclination4.985°
3.244°
314.589°
Physical characteristics
Dimensions141.90 ± 8.72 km[4]
Mass(3.25±1.68)×1018 kg[4]
Mean density
2.17 ± 1.19 g/cm3[4]
13.175[5] h
0.080 [6]
C (Tholen)
B (SMASSII)[7]
7.84

47 Aglaja /əˈɡleɪ.ə/ is a large, dark main belt asteroid. It was discovered by Robert Luther on 15 September 1857 from Düsseldorf.[8] The name was chosen by the Philosophical Faculty of the University of Bonn and refers to Aglaea, one of the Charites in Greek mythology.[9] It was rendered Aglaia in English sources into the early 20th century, as 'i' and 'j' are equivalent in Latin names and in the Latin rendering of Greek names.[2]

Based upon its spectrum, 47 Aglaja is listed as a C-type asteroid under the Tholen classification taxonomy, indicating a carbonaceous composition. The SMASS classification system rates it as a rare B-type asteroid. There is a broad absorption feature at 1 μm that is associated with the presence of magnetite and is what gives the asteroid its blue tint.[7]

On 16 September 1984, the star SAO 146599 was occulted by 47 Aglaja. This event was observed from 13 sites in the continental United States, allowing a cross-sectional profile to be determined. Based upon this study, the asteroid has a diameter of 136.4 ± 1.2 km. The geometric albedo calculated at the time of the occultation was 0.071 ± 0.002.[10]

2012 photometric observations of this asteroid at the Organ Mesa Observatory in Las Cruces, New Mexico gave a light curve with a period of 13.175 ± 0.002 hours and a brightness variation of 0.09 ± 0.01 in magnitude. This result is in agreement with previous studies.[5]

  1. ^ 'Aglaia' in Noah Webster (1884) A Practical Dictionary of the English Language
  2. ^ a b John Craig (1869) The Universal English Dictionary
    Benjamin Smith (1903) The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference JPL was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference Carry2012 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference Pilcher2012 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ "Asteroid Data Sets". Archived from the original on 17 December 2009. Retrieved 12 January 2007.
  7. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference Yang2010 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference IAU_MPC was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  9. ^ Cite error: The named reference Schmadel2003 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  10. ^ Cite error: The named reference Millis1989 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).