1213 Algeria, provisional designation , is a carbonaceous
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 outer region 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 ...
, approximately 32 kilometers in diameter. Discovered by
Guy Reiss
Guy Reiss (1904–1964) was a French astronomer and discoverer of five asteroids, who worked at the Algiers Observatory in Algiers, North Africa, during the 1930s and later at the Nice Observatory in southeastern France.
Among his discoveries ma ...
at
Algiers Observatory
The Algiers Observatory was built in the late 19th century in the Algiers suburb of Bouzaréah, Algeria, North Africa. It participated in the Astrographic Catalogue project, taking the zone between -2 and +4 degrees to expose 1,260 plates between ...
in 1931, it was named after the North African country of
Guy Reiss
Guy Reiss (1904–1964) was a French astronomer and discoverer of five asteroids, who worked at the Algiers Observatory in Algiers, North Africa, during the 1930s and later at the Nice Observatory in southeastern France.
Among his discoveries ma ...
at the North African
Algiers Observatory
The Algiers Observatory was built in the late 19th century in the Algiers suburb of Bouzaréah, Algeria, North Africa. It participated in the Astrographic Catalogue project, taking the zone between -2 and +4 degrees to expose 1,260 plates between ...
on 5 December 1931. Three nights later, the body was independently discovered by Belgian–American astronomer
George Van Biesbroeck
George A. Van Biesbroeck (or Georges-Achille Van Biesbroeck, , January 21, 1880 – February 23, 1974) was a Belgian–American astronomer. He worked at observatories in Belgium, Germany and the United States. He specialized in the observation o ...
at the U.S.
Yerkes Observatory
Yerkes Observatory ( ) is an astronomical observatory located in Williams Bay, Wisconsin, United States. The observatory was operated by the University of Chicago Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics from its founding in 1897 to 2018. Owne ...
in Wisconsin.
A first
precovery
In astronomy, precovery (short for pre-discovery recovery) is the process of finding the image of an object in images or photographic plates predating its discovery, typically for the purpose of calculating a more accurate orbit. This happens mos ...
was taken at Yerkes Observatory, extending the ''Algeria''s
observation arc
In observational astronomy, the observation arc (or arc length) of a Solar System body is the time period between its earliest and latest observations, used for tracing the body's path. It is usually given in days or years. The term is mostly use ...
by just 16 days prior to its official discovery observation.