1184 Gaea, provisional designation , is an Aerian

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. ...

from the central regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 20 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 5 September 1926, by astronomer Karl Reinmuth at the

Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory (german: Landessternwarte Heidelberg-Königstuhl) is a historic astronomical observatory located near the summit of the Königstuhl hill in the city of Heidelberg in Germany. The predecessor of the curre ...

in southwest Germany. The asteroid was named after the goddess of Earth, Gaea (Gaia), from Greek mythology.

Orbit and classification

''Gaea'' is a member of the small

Aeria family 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 ...

(), named after its parent body 369 Aeria. It orbits the Sun in the

central Central is an adjective usually referring to being in the center of some place or (mathematical) object. Central may also refer to: Directions and generalised locations * Central Africa, a region in the centre of Africa continent, also known as ...

main-belt at a distance of 2.5–2.9 AU once every 4 years and 4 months (1,592 days). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.07 and an inclination of 11 ° with respect to the ecliptic. The body's observation arc begins at Heidelberg in November 1925, more than 2 months after its official discovery observation.

Physical characteristics

The asteroid's spectral type is unknown. The LCDB assumes a stony ( S) or carbonaceous ( C) composition to be equally likely, while the overall spectral type for members of the

is that of an X-type. The high albedo figures obtained from observations with the WISE telescope do not agree with neither of these spectral types ''(see below)''.

Rotation period

In January 2011, a rotational lightcurve of ''Gaea'' was obtained from photometric observations by French amateur astronomer René Roy. Lightcurve analysis gave a short

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 2.94 hours with a brightness amplitude of 0.09 magnitude (). A low brightness amplitude also indicates that the body might have a spheroidal rather than an irregular shape.

Diameter and albedo

According to the survey carried out by the NEOWISE mission of NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, ''Gaea'' measures 11.783 and 12.048 kilometers in diameter and its surface has a high albedo of 0.462 and 0.4512, respectively. The ''Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link'' assumes an albedo of 0.10 – a compromise value between the stony (0.20) and carbonaceous (0.057) asteroids, both found abundantly in this region of the asteroid belt – and consequently calculates a much larger diameter of 26.52 kilometers based on an absolute magnitude of 11.0.

Naming

This minor planet was named after

Gaia In Greek mythology, Gaia (; from Ancient Greek , a poetical form of , 'land' or 'earth'),, , . also spelled Gaea , is the personification of the Earth and one of the Greek primordial deities. Gaia is the ancestral mother—sometimes parthenog ...

(or Gaea), the goddess of Earth in Greek mythology. Her son ''and'' husband was Uranus, the god of the sky. Uranus and Gaia were the parents of the first generation of Titans (six males and six females), and the ancestors of most of the Greek gods. The asteroid's name was proposed by German ARI-astronomer

Gustav Stracke Gustav, Gustaf or Gustave may refer to: *Gustav (name), a male given name of Old Swedish origin Art, entertainment, and media * ''Primeval'' (film), a 2007 American horror film * ''Gustav'' (film series), a Hungarian series of animated short cart ...

after whom the asteroid

1019 Strackea 1019 Strackea, provisional designation , is a stony Hungaria asteroid of the inner asteroid belt, approximately 8 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 3 March 1924, by astronomer Karl Reinmuth at Heidelberg Observatory in southwest Germany ...

was named.

Notes

References

External links

Asteroid Lightcurve Database (LCDB)
query form

)
Dictionary of Minor Planet Names
Google books

– Observatoire de Genève, Raoul Behrend

– Minor Planet Center * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gaea 001184 Discoveries by Karl Wilhelm Reinmuth Named minor planets 19260905