1171 Rusthawelia, provisional designation , is a large and dark
background asteroid
An asteroid family is a population of asteroids that share similar proper orbital elements, such as semimajor axis, eccentricity, and orbital inclination. The members of the families are thought to be fragments of past asteroid collisions. An a ...
, approximately in diameter, located in the outer regions of the
asteroid belt
The asteroid belt is a torus-shaped region in the Solar System, located roughly between the orbits of the planets Jupiter and Mars. It contains a great many solid, irregularly shaped bodies, of many sizes, but much smaller than planets, called ...
. It was discovered on 3 October 1930, by Belgian astronomer
Sylvain Arend
Sylvain Julien Victor Arend (6 August 1902 – 18 February 1992) was a Belgian astronomer born in Robelmont, Luxembourg province, Belgium. His main interest was astrometry.
Together with Georges Roland, he discovered the bright comet C/1956 R ...
at the
Royal Observatory of Belgium
The Royal Observatory of Belgium (french: link=no, Observatoire Royal de Belgique, nl, Koninklijke Sterrenwacht van België), has been situated in the Uccle municipality of Brussels (Belgium) since 1890. It was first established in Saint-Josse ...
in Uccle, and was an unnoticed rediscovery of a
lost minor planet
A minor planet is "lost" when today's observers cannot find it, because its location is too uncertain to target observations. This happens if the orbital elements of a minor planet are not known accurately enough, typically because the observat ...
then known as "Adelaide". As the asteroid was already named for Georgian poet
Shota Rustaveli
Shota Rustaveli ( ka, შოთა რუსთაველი, c. 1160 – after c. 1220), mononymously known simply as Rustaveli, was a medieval Georgian poet. He is considered to be the pre-eminent poet of the Georgian Golden Age and one of th ...
when the rediscovery was realized, its former designation was given to another asteroid instead, which is now known as 525 Adelaide. ''Rusthawelia'' is a primitive
P-type asteroid
P-type asteroids are asteroids that have low albedo and a featureless reddish spectrum. It has been suggested that they have a composition of organic rich silicates, carbon and anhydrous silicates, possibly with water ice in their interior. P-type ...
and has 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 11 hours.
Unnoticed rediscovery of lost asteroid
When Arend discovered ''Rusthawelia'' in 1930, it was not realized that he rediscovered the long-
lost asteroid
A minor planet is "lost" when today's observers cannot find it, because its location is too uncertain to target observations. This happens if the orbital elements of a minor planet are not known accurately enough, typically because the observat ...
"525 Adelaide". It was already discovered 26 years earlier as by German astronomer
Max Wolf
Maximilian Franz Joseph Cornelius Wolf (21 June 1863 – 3 October 1932) was a German astronomer and a pioneer in the field of astrophotography. He was the chairman of astronomy at the University of Heidelberg and director of the Heidelberg-K ...
at
Heidelberg Observatory
Heidelberg (; Palatine German: ') is a city in the German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914, of which roughly a quarter consisted of students.
...
in March 1904, who observed it for a short time during the discovery opposition before it became lost. Only decades later, in 1958, it was shown by French astronomer
André Patry
André Patry (22 November 1902 – 20 June 1960) was a French astronomer and discoverer of 9 minor planets in the late 1930s.
Patry was orphaned at a young age, and began working as a 17-year-old at the Nice Observatory in southeastern France. H ...
that both asteroid's discovered by Wolf and Arend were one and the same (). It was then decided that this asteroid retains the number–name designation "1171 Rusthawelia", while 525 Adelaide was vacated and given to another asteroid (which was the object , discovered by
Joel Hastings Metcalf
Joel Hastings Metcalf (January 4, 1866 – February 23, 1925) was an American astronomer, humanitarian and Minister (Christianity), minister.
Reverend Metcalf graduated from Harvard Divinity School in 1892. He served as a Unitarianism, Unitarian ...
).
Another confusion occurred in 1929, one year before Arend's discovery, when American astronomer
Anne Sewell Young
Anne Sewell Young (January 2, 1871 – August 15, 1961) was an American astronomer. She was an astronomy professor at Mount Holyoke College for 37 years.
Biography
Anne Sewell Young was born in Bloomington, Wisconsin on January 2, 1871, to Rever ...
thought to have found long-lost "Adelide", when in fact she mistook the asteroid for comet
31P/Schwassmann–Wachmann
31P/Schwassmann–Wachmann, also known as Schwassmann–Wachmann 2, is a periodic comet in the Solar System. It was discovered on January 17, 1929, at an apparent magnitude of 11.Cometography Home Page The comet has been seen at every apparition ...
that had a very similar
orbital eccentricity
In astrodynamics, the orbital eccentricity of an astronomical object is a dimensionless parameter that determines the amount by which its orbit around another body deviates from a perfect circle. A value of 0 is a circular orbit, values betwee ...
.
Orbit and classification
''Rusthawelia'' is a non-
family
Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...