Atala (

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 ...

: 152 Atala) 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. ...

that was discovered by brothers

Paul Henry and Prosper Henry Paul-Pierre Henry (Paul Henry) (21 August 1848 – 4 January 1905) and his brother Prosper-Mathieu Henry (Prosper Henry) (10 December 1849 – 25 July 1903) were French opticians and astronomers. They made refracting telescopes and instruments ...

on 2 November 1875, but the discovery was credited to Paul. It is a

type D Type D or D-Type may refer to: * D-type asteroid * Jaguar D-Type, a sports racing car * Honda D-Type, a motorcycle * Type D personality, a concept used in the field of medical psychology * Type D plug, a type of electrical power plug * ''Type-D ...

asteroid, meaning that it is composed of

carbon Carbon () is a chemical element with the symbol C and atomic number 6. It is nonmetallic and tetravalent In chemistry, the valence (US spelling) or valency (British spelling) of an element is the measure of its combining capacity with o ...

organic Organic may refer to: * Organic, of or relating to an organism, a living entity * Organic, of or relating to an anatomical organ Chemistry * Organic matter, matter that has come from a once-living organism, is capable of decay or is the product ...

rich

silicate In chemistry, a silicate is any member of a family of polyatomic anions consisting of silicon and oxygen, usually with the general formula , where . The family includes orthosilicate (), metasilicate (), and pyrosilicate (, ). The name is al ...

s and possibly water ice. The asteroid is named for the eponymous heroine of the 1801

novella A novella is a narrative prose fiction whose length is shorter than most novels, but longer than most short stories. The English word ''novella'' derives from the Italian ''novella'' meaning a short story related to true (or apparently so) facts ...

'' Atala'' by

François-René de Chateaubriand François-René, vicomte de Chateaubriand (4 September 1768 – 4 July 1848) was a French writer, politician, diplomat and historian who had a notable influence on French literature of the nineteenth century. Descended from an old aristocrati ...

. The Henry brothers also named the last of their discoveries, 186 Celuta, after another Chateaubriand heroine. Both Atala and Céluta are American Indian fictional characters.; An

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 ...

of a

star A star is an astronomical object comprising a luminous spheroid of plasma (physics), plasma held together by its gravity. The List of nearest stars and brown dwarfs, nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked ...

by Atala was observed from Japan on 11 March 1994. Subsequent occultations have been observed as recently as 2006. Photometric of this asteroid made in 1981 gave a light curve with a period of 5.282 ± 0.004 hours with a brightness variation of 0.50 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 ...

References

External links

Occultation of TYC 5558-01048-1 by (152) Atala
on 2006 May 7 UT
(152) Atala near opposition 5 July 2007
(2.38AU from Earth) * * 000152 Discoveries by Paul Henry and Prosper Henry Named minor planets 000152 000152 000152 18751102 François-René de Chateaubriand {{beltasteroid-stub