Antigone (

minor planet designation A formal minor-planet designation is, in its final form, a number–name combination given to a minor planet (asteroid, centaur, trans-Neptunian object and dwarf planet but not comet). Such designation always features a leading number (catalog or ...

: 129 Antigone) is a large

main-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 ...

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. ...

. Radar observations indicate that it is composed of almost pure

nickel Nickel is a chemical element with symbol Ni and atomic number 28. It is a silvery-white lustrous metal with a slight golden tinge. Nickel is a hard and ductile transition metal. Pure nickel is chemically reactive but large pieces are slow to ...

iron Iron () is a chemical element with symbol Fe (from la, ferrum) and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, right in f ...

. It and other similar asteroids probably originate from the core of a shattered Vesta-like

planetesimal Planetesimals are solid objects thought to exist in protoplanetary disks and debris disks. Per the Chamberlin–Moulton planetesimal hypothesis, they are believed to form out of cosmic dust grains. Believed to have formed in the Solar System a ...

which had a differentiated interior. It was discovered by German-American astronomer

C. H. F. Peters Christian Heinrich Friedrich Peters (September 19, 1813 – July 18, 1890) was a German–American university teacher and astronomer at the Litchfield Observatory of Hamilton College, New York, and a pioneer in the study and visual discovery of ...

on February 5, 1873, and named after

Antigone In Greek mythology, Antigone ( ; Ancient Greek: Ἀντιγόνη) is the daughter of Oedipus and either his mother Jocasta or, in another variation of the myth, Euryganeia. She is a sister of Polynices, Eteocles, and Ismene.Roman, L., & Roma ...

, the Theban princess in

Greek mythology A major branch of classical mythology, Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the Ancient Greece, ancient Greeks, and a genre of Ancient Greek folklore. These stories concern the Cosmogony, origin and Cosmology#Metaphysical co ...

. In 1979 a possible

satellite A satellite or artificial satellite is an object intentionally placed into orbit in outer space. Except for passive satellites, most satellites have an electricity generation system for equipment on board, such as solar panels or radioisotope ...

of Antigone was suggested based on

lightcurve 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 ...

data. A model constructed from these shows Antigone itself to be quite regularly shaped. In 1990, the asteroid was observed from the

Collurania-Teramo Observatory The Collurania Observatory, also Teramo Observatory, ( it, Osservatorio Astronomico di Collurania "Vincenzo Cerulli"), is an astronomy, astronomical observatory located in Teramo, in Abruzzo region of central Italy. It was founded by Vincenzo Ce ...

, allowing a composite light curve to be produced that showed 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 4.9572 ± 0.0001 hours and a brightness variation of 0.34 ± 0.01 in

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 ...

. The ratio of the lengths of the major to minor axes for this asteroid were found to be 1.45 ±0.02. 10 μ radiometric data collected from

Kitt Peak Kitt Peak ( ood, Ioligam) is a mountain in the U.S. state of Arizona, and at is the highest point in the Quinlan Mountains. It is the location of the Kitt Peak National Observatory. The radio telescope at the observatory is one of ten dishes co ...

in 1975 gave a diameter estimate of 114 km. Since 1985, a total of three

stellar Stellar means anything related to one or more stars (''stella''). The term may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * ''Stellar'' (magazine), an Irish lifestyle and fashion magazine * Stellar Loussier, a character from ''Mobile Suit Gun ...

occultation An occultation is an event that occurs when one object is hidden from the observer by another object that passes between them. The term is often used in astronomy, but can also refer to any situation in which an object in the foreground blocks ...

s by Antigone have been observed. A favorable occultation of a star on April 11, 1985, was observed from sites near

Pueblo, Colorado Pueblo () is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Home rule municipality, home rule municipality that is the county seat and the List of municipalities in Colorado, most populous municipality of Pueblo County, Colorado, Pueblo County, Colorado ...

, allowing a diameter estimate of 113.0 ± 4.2 km to be calculated.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Antigone 000129 000129 000129 Discoveries by Christian Peters Named minor planets 000129 18730205