1675 Simonida, provisional designation , is a stony Florian

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 inner regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 11 kilometers in diameter. Discovered by

Milorad Protić Milorad (Cyrillic script: Милорад; Polish language, Polish: Miłorad) is an old Serbian masculine given name derived from the Slavic names, Slavic elements: ''milo'' meaning "gracious, dear" and ''rad'' meaning "work, care, joy". The feminine ...

in 1938, it was later named after the medieval Byzantine princess Simonida.

Discovery

''Simonida'' was discovered on 20 March 1938, by Serbian astronomer

at Belgrade Astronomical Observatory. On the same night, it was independently discovered by Belgian astronomer

Fernand Rigaux Fernand Rigaux (1905 – 21 September 1962) was a Belgian astronomer and observer of variable stars, minor planets and comets at the Royal Observatory at Uccle, Belgium. In 1951, he co-discovered the periodic comet 49P/Arend-Rigaux with his c ...

Uccle Observatory The Royal Observatory of Belgium (french: link=no, Observatoire Royal de Belgique, nl, Koninklijke Sterrenwacht van België), has been situated in the Uccle municipality of Brussels (Belgium) since 1890. It was first established in Saint-Josse ...

in Belgium.

Classification and orbit

The S-type asteroid is a member of the Flora family, a large population of stony asteroids in the main-belt. It orbits the Sun at a distance of 2.0–2.5 AU once every 3 years and 4 months (1,219 days). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.12 and an inclination of 7 ° with respect to the ecliptic. ''Simonida'' first observation was a

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 ...

taken at

Lowell Observatory Lowell Observatory is an astronomical observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, United States. Lowell Observatory was established in 1894, placing it among the oldest observatories in the United States, and was designated a National Historic Landmark ...

in 1931, extending the body's observation arc by 7 years prior to its official discovery observation.

Physical characteristics

Lightcurves

In March 1988, Polish astronomer

Wiesław Z. Wiśniewski Wiesław Z. Wiśniewski (May 2, 1931 in Poland – February 28, 1994 in Tucson, Arizona, United States) was a Polish astronomer. Wisniewski was born and educated in Poland. He survived the Nazi occupation and many of his later insights and viewpo ...

obtained a lightcurve of ''Simonida'' that gave 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 5.3 hours with a brightness variation of 0.26 magnitude (). In January 2004, astronomer A. Kryszczynska at Poznań Observatory measured a period of 5.2885 hours with an amplitude of 0.50 magnitude (). In January 2008, photometric observations by astronomers Martine Castets, Bernard Trégon, Arnaud Leroy and Raoul Behrend gave a rotation period of 5.16 hours with a brightness variation of 0.21 ().

Diameter and albedo

According to the space-based Japanese Akari satellite, ''Simonida'' measures 12.16 kilometers in diameter, and its surface has an albedo of 0.211. The ''Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link'', however, agrees with the results obtained by 8 observations of the Infrared Astronomical Satellite IRAS, that gave a diameter of 11.08 kilometers and an albedo of 0.25 with an absolute magnitude of 11.9.

Naming

This minor planet was named for Byzantine princess and queen consort Simonida, the wife of medieval Serbian king

Stefan Milutin Stefan Uroš II Milutin ( sr-cyr, Стефан Урош II Милутин, Stefan Uroš II Milutin; 1253 – 29 October 1321), known as Stefan Milutin ( sr-cyr, Стефан Милутин, Stefan Milutin), was the King of Serbia between 1282&nd ...

and symbol of beauty in former Yugoslavia. The official was published by the

Minor Planet Center The Minor Planet Center (MPC) is the official body for observing and reporting on minor planets under the auspices of the International Astronomical Union (IAU). Founded in 1947, it operates at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. Function ...

on 1 January 1973 ().

References

External links

Asteroid Lightcurve Database (LCDB)
query form

)
Dictionary of Minor Planet Names
Google books

– Observatoire de Genève, Raoul Behrend

– Minor Planet Center * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Simonida 001675 Discoveries by Milorad B. Protić Named minor planets 19380320