1193 Africa, provisional designation , is a stony Eunomian
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 region of the
asteroid belt, approximately 12 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered by South African astronomer
Cyril Jackson at
Johannesburg Observatory on 24 April 1931.
The asteroid was named for the
African continent
Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...
.
Orbit and classification
''Africa'' is a member of the
Eunomia family The Eunomia or Eunomian family () is a large asteroid family of S-type asteroids named after the asteroid 15 Eunomia. It is the most prominent family in the intermediate asteroid belt and the 6th-largest family with nearly six thousand known members ...
(), a large group of typically
S-type asteroids and the most prominent family in the
intermediate main-belt.
It orbits the Sun at a distance of 2.3–3.0
AU once every 4 years and 4 months (1,572 days). Its orbit has an
eccentricity of 0.12 and an
inclination of 14
° with respect to the
ecliptic.
The body's
observation arc begins with its official discovery observation at Johannesburg.
Physical characteristics
Diameter and albedo
According to the survey carried out by NASA's
Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer with its subsequent
NEOWISE mission, ''Africa'' measures 12.22 kilometers in diameter and its surface has an
albedo of 0.247.
Based on a generic magnitude-to-diameter conversion, ''Africa'' measures 13 kilometers in diameter, using an
absolute magnitude of 11.8 and a standard albedo for Eunomian asteroids of 0.21, derived from
15 Eunomia
Eunomia (minor planet designation 15 Eunomia) is a very large asteroid in the inner asteroid belt. It is the largest of the stony ( S-type) asteroids, with 3 Juno as a close second. It is quite a massive asteroid, in 6th to 8th place (to within ...
, the family's largest member and namesake.
Photometry
As of 2017, no rotational
lightcurve of ''Africa'' has been obtained from photometric observations. The body's
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 ...
, poles and shape still remain unknown.
Naming
This
minor planet was named for
Africa, the large continent on which
Johannesburg is located.
The official naming citation was also mentioned in
Paul Herget's ''
The Names of the Minor Planets'' in 1955 ().
References
External links
Dictionary of Minor Planet Names Google books
– Observatoire de Genève, Raoul Behrend
– Minor Planet Center
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Africa
001193
Discoveries by Cyril Jackson (astronomer)
Named minor planets
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