Petit-Prince (moon)

Petit-Prince
Discovery[1]
Discovered byW. J. Merline, L. M. Close,
C. Dumas, C. R. Chapman,
F. Roddier, F. Menard,
D. C. Slater, G. Duvert,
J. C. Shelton, T. Morgan
Discovery date1 November 1998
Designations
S/1998 (45) 1
Pronunciation/ˌpɛtiˈprɪns/
French: [pətipʁɛ̃s]
Named after
Napoléon, Prince Imperial and The Little Prince
Main belt
Orbital characteristics[2]
1184 ± 12 km
Eccentricity0.0100 ± 0.0002
4.766 ± 0.001 d
18.1 m/s
Inclination8.0 ± 0.1°
(with respect to Eugenia equator)
Satellite of45 Eugenia
Physical characteristics
Dimensions~ 13 km (estimate) [3]
Mass~ 1.2×1015 kg (estimate) [4]
Equatorial escape velocity
~ 5 m/s (estimate)
13.6 [5]

(45) Eugenia I Petit-Prince is the larger, outer moon of asteroid 45 Eugenia. It was discovered in 1998 by astronomers at the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope on Mauna Kea, Hawaii. Initially, it received the provisional designation S/1998 (45) 1. Petit-Prince was the first asteroid moon to be discovered with a ground-based telescope. Previously, the only known moon of an asteroid was Dactyl, discovered by the Galileo space probe, around 243 Ida.

  1. ^ IAUC 7129, announcing the discovery
  2. ^ synthesis of several observations Archived 13 September 2006 at the Wayback Machine, F. Marchis.
  3. ^ Assuming the same albedo as Eugenia, then using the difference in absolute magnitude
  4. ^ Assuming same density and albedo as Eugenia
  5. ^ W.J. Merline at al. (1999). "Discovery of a moon orbiting the asteroid 45 Eugenia". Nature. 401 (6753): 565–568. Bibcode:1999Natur.401..565M. doi:10.1038/44089. S2CID 4414973.