1226 Golia, provisional designation , is a metallic

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 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 15 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 22 April 1930, by Dutch astronomer

Hendrik van Gent Hendrik van Gent (14 September 1899, Pernis – March 29, 1947, Amsterdam)''Album studiosorum Academiæ lugduno-batavæ MDCCCLXXV-MCMXXV'', A. W. Sijthoff, 1925, p. 376 was a Dutch astronomer. He moved to South Africa in 1928 in order to o ...

at Leiden Southern Station, annex to the

Johannesburg Observatory Union Observatory also known as Johannesburg Observatory ( 078) is a defunct astronomical observatory in Johannesburg, South Africa that was operated between 1903 and 1971. It is located on Observatory Ridge, the city's highest point at 1,808 met ...

in South Africa. It is named for

Jacobus Golius Jacob Golius born Jacob van Gool (1596 – September 28, 1667) was an Orientalist and mathematician based at the University of Leiden in Netherlands. He is primarily remembered as an Orientalist. He published Arabic texts in Arabic at Leiden, ...

Orbit and classification

''Golia'' 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 2.3–2.9 AU once every 4 years and 2 months (1,516 days). Its orbit has an

eccentricity Eccentricity or eccentric may refer to: * Eccentricity (behavior), odd behavior on the part of a person, as opposed to being "normal" Mathematics, science and technology Mathematics * Off-center, in geometry * Eccentricity (graph theory) of a v ...

of 0.11 and an

inclination Orbital inclination measures the tilt of an object's orbit around a celestial body. It is expressed as the angle between a Plane of reference, reference plane and the orbital plane or Axis of rotation, axis of direction of the orbiting object ...

of 10 ° with respect to the

ecliptic The ecliptic or ecliptic plane is the orbital plane of the Earth around the Sun. From the perspective of an observer on Earth, the Sun's movement around the celestial sphere over the course of a year traces out a path along the ecliptic again ...

. The body'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 ...

begins at Johannesburg one night after its official discovery observation, with no

precoveries 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 ...

taken and no prior identifications made.

Physical characteristics

''Golia'' has been characterized as a metallic

M-type asteroid M-type (aka M-class) asteroids are a spectral class of asteroids which appear to contain higher concentrations of metal phases (e.g. iron-nickel) than other asteroid classes, and are widely thought to be the source of iron meteorites. Definition ...

by the

Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE, observatory code C51, Explorer 92 and SMEX-6) is a NASA infrared astronomy space telescope in the Explorers Program. It was launched in December 2009, and placed in hibernation mode in February 2011, ...

(WISE).

Rotation period

In March 1992, the first reliable rotational

light curve In astronomy, a light curve is a graph of light intensity of a celestial object or region as a function of time, typically with the magnitude of light received on the y axis and with time on the x axis. The light is usually in a particular frequ ...

of ''Golia'' was obtained by Italian astronomer Mario Di Martino using the ESO 1-metre telescope at

La Silla La Silla may refer to: * La Silla Observatory, an astronomical observatory in Chile * Cerro de la Silla, a mountain and natural monument located within the metropolitan area of the city of Monterrey, Nuevo León, in northeastern Mexico. * La Sill ...

in northern Chile. Analysis gave a well-defined

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 4.097 hours with a change in brightness of 0.35

magnitude Magnitude may refer to: Mathematics *Euclidean vector, a quantity defined by both its magnitude and its direction *Magnitude (mathematics), the relative size of an object *Norm (mathematics), a term for the size or length of a vector *Order of ...

(). Another light curve was obtained from photometric observations in the R-band at the

Palomar Transient Factory The Palomar Transient Factory (PTF, obs. code: I41), was an astronomical survey using a wide-field survey camera designed to search for optical transient and variable sources such as variable stars, supernovae, asteroids and comets. The projec ...

in October 2011, giving a period of 4.0910 hours and an amplitude of 0.24 magnitude ().

Diameter and albedo

According to preliminary results by the

NEOWISE Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE, observatory code C51, Explorer 92 and SMEX-6) is a NASA infrared astronomy space telescope in the Explorers Program. It was launched in December 2009, and placed in hibernation mode in February 2011, ...

mission of NASA's WISE space telescope, ''Golia'' measures 11.68 and 12.18 kilometers in diameter, and its surface has an

albedo Albedo (; ) is the measure of the diffuse reflection of sunlight, solar radiation out of the total solar radiation and measured on a scale from 0, corresponding to a black body that absorbs all incident radiation, to 1, corresponding to a body ...

of 0.187 and 0.172, respectively, while the Infrared Astronomical Satellite

IRAS The Infrared Astronomical Satellite (Dutch: ''Infrarood Astronomische Satelliet'') (IRAS) was the first space telescope to perform a survey of the entire night sky at infrared wavelengths. Launched on 25 January 1983, its mission lasted ten mo ...

gives a diameter of 16.39 kilometers and an albedo of 0.239. The ''Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link'' considers ''Golia'' to be of stony composition, deriving an albedo of 0.1008 and a diameter of 15.92 kilometers, using an

absolute magnitude Absolute magnitude () is a measure of the luminosity of a celestial object on an inverse Logarithmic scale, logarithmic Magnitude (astronomy), astronomical magnitude scale. An object's absolute magnitude is defined to be equal to the apparent mag ...

of 12.1.

Naming

This

minor planet According to the International Astronomical Union (IAU), a minor planet is an astronomical object in direct orbit around the Sun that is exclusively classified as neither a planet nor a comet. Before 2006, the IAU officially used the term ''minor ...

was named after Dutch professor of astronomy Jakob Gool (1596–1667), also known as Jacobus Golius, who founded the

Leiden Observatory Leiden Observatory ( nl, Sterrewacht Leiden) is an astronomical institute of Leiden University, in the Netherlands. Established in 1633 to house the quadrant of Rudolph Snellius, it is the oldest operating university observatory in the world, with ...

in 1633. He was a mathematician and orientalist, who translated Arabic texts into Latin including the work of 9th-century Muslim astronomer

Al-Farghani Abū al-ʿAbbās Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Kathīr al-Farghānī ( ar, أبو العبّاس أحمد بن محمد بن كثير الفرغاني 798/800/805–870), also known as Alfraganus in the West, was an astronomer in the Abbasid court ...

. He was also a teacher of French philosopher

René Descartes René Descartes ( or ; ; Latinized: Renatus Cartesius; 31 March 1596 – 11 February 1650) was a French philosopher, scientist, and mathematician, widely considered a seminal figure in the emergence of modern philosophy and science. Mathem ...

, after whom the minor planet 3587 Descartes is named. The official naming citation was compiled by

Lutz Schmadel Lutz Dieter Schmadel (2 July 1942, in Berlin – 21 October 2016) was a German astronomer and a prolific discoverer of asteroids, who worked at the Astronomisches Rechen-Institut (ARI) of the University of Heidelberg. His special interest was t ...

for the ''Dictionary of Minor Planet Names'' based on a private communication with

Ingrid van Houten-Groeneveld Ingrid van Houten-Groeneveld (; 21 October 1921 – 30 March 2015) was a Dutch astronomer. Background In a jointly credited trio with Tom Gehrels and her husband Cornelis Johannes van Houten, she was the discoverer of many thousands of aster ...

at Leiden.

Orbit and classification

Physical characteristics

Rotation period

Diameter and albedo

Naming

References

External links