10208 Germanicus, provisional designation , is a stony Florian

asteroid An asteroid is a minor planet of the inner Solar System. Sizes and shapes of asteroids vary significantly, ranging from 1-meter rocks to a dwarf planet almost 1000 km in diameter; they are rocky, metallic or icy bodies with no atmosphere. ...

and binary system from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 3.5 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 30 August 1997, by Italian amateur astronomer Antonio Vagnozzi at the Santa Lucia Stroncone Astronomical Observatory in Stroncone, Italy, and named for ancient Roman general

Germanicus Germanicus Julius Caesar (24 May 15 BC – 10 October AD 19) was an ancient Roman general, known for his campaigns in Germania. The son of Nero Claudius Drusus and Antonia the Younger, Germanicus was born into an influential branch of the Patric ...

. The asteroid's minor-planet moon was discovered in 2007.

Orbit and classification

''Germanicus'' is a member of the Flora family, one of the largest families of stony asteroids. It orbits the Sun in the

inner Interior may refer to: Arts and media * ''Interior'' (Degas) (also known as ''The Rape''), painting by Edgar Degas * ''Interior'' (play), 1895 play by Belgian playwright Maurice Maeterlinck * ''The Interior'' (novel), by Lisa See * Interior de ...

main-belt at a distance of 1.8–2.7 AU once every 3 years and 4 months (1,221 days). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.20 and an inclination of 5 ° with respect to the ecliptic. It was first observed at

Crimea–Nauchnij The Crimean Astrophysical Observatory (CrAO, obs. code: 095) is located at Nauchnij research campus, near the Central Crimean city of Bakhchysarai, on the Crimean peninsula. CrAO is often called simply by its location and campus name, ...

and

Brorfelde Observatory Brorfelde Observatory ( da, Brorfelde Observatoriet; obs. code: 054) is an astronomical observatory located in Brorfelde near Holbæk, Denmark. It is home to the Brorfelde Schmidt Telescope and was run as a branch of the Copenhagen Uni ...

in August 1987, extending the body's observation arc by 10 years prior to its official discovery observation at Stroncone.

Diameter and albedo

According to the survey carried out by NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer with its subsequent NEOWISE mission, ''Germanicus'' measures 2.87 and 3.552 kilometers in diameter and its surface has an albedo of 0.36 and 0.267, respectively. The ''Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link'' adopts Petr Pravec's revised WISE-data, that is, an albedo of 0.1747 and a diameter of 3.50 kilometers with an absolute magnitude of 14.79.

Lightcurve and satellite

In August 2007, a rotational lightcurve of ''Germanicus'' was obtained from photometric observations by an international group of astronomers. Lightcurve analysis gave a

rotation period The rotation period of a celestial object (e.g., star, gas giant, planet, moon, asteroid) may refer to its sidereal rotation period, i.e. the time that the object takes to complete a single revolution around its axis of rotation relative to the ...

of 3.1291 hours with a brightness variation of 0.13 magnitude (). It was also revealed that ''Germanicus'' is orbited by a minor-planet moon every 58.55 hours. The system has a high secondary-to-primary mean-diameter ratio of 0.46. This translates into a satellite diameter of 1.48 kilometers (based on a primary-diameter of 3.23 kilometers).

Naming

This minor planet was named for the ancient Roman general and poet

(15 BC – AD 19), who led several successful campaigns into Germania. Germanicus was also the nephew and designated heir of the Roman Emperor Tiberius. As a poet, he wrote "Aratea", an astronomical treatise, which illustrated copy is known as the

Leiden Aratea Leiden, Universiteitsbibliotheek, VLQ 79, also called the Leiden Aratea, is an illuminated copy of an astronomical treatise by Germanicus, based on the ''Phaenomena'' of Aratus. The manuscript was created in the region of Lorraine and has been da ...

. The approved naming citation was published by the

Minor Planet Center The Minor Planet Center (MPC) is the official body for observing and reporting on minor planets under the auspices of the International Astronomical Union (IAU). Founded in 1947, it operates at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. Function ...

on 27 May 2010 ().

Orbit and classification

Diameter and albedo

Lightcurve and satellite

Naming

Notes

References

External links