Bettina (
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 ...
: 250 Bettina) is a large
main belt 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 Austrian astronomer
Johann Palisa
Johann Palisa (6 December 1848 – 2 May 1925) was an Austrian astronomer, born in Troppau, Austrian Silesia, now Czech Republic. He was a prolific discoverer of asteroids, discovering 122 in all, from 136 Austria in 1874 to 1073 Gel ...
on September 3, 1885, in
Vienna
en, Viennese
, iso_code = AT-9
, registration_plate = W
, postal_code_type = Postal code
, postal_code =
, timezone = CET
, utc_offset = +1
, timezone_DST ...
. It was named in honour of Baroness Bettina von Rothschild (née de Rothschild; 1858–1892), wife of Baron
Albert von Rothschild who had bought the naming rights for £50.
[Observatory, vol. 8, p. 63, 1885 & vol. 9, p. 142, 1886; see also The Guinness Book of Astronomy Facts and Feats Patrick Moore page 96 ] Based upon the spectrum, it is classified as an
M-type asteroid.
In 1988, 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
light curve to be produced that showed "an irregular behavior with a deeper minimum and a narrower maximum". The data 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 5.055 hours and a brightness variation of 0.17 ± 0.01 in
magnitude. The ratio of the lengths of the major to minor axes for this asteroid were found to be 1.51 ± 0.03.
References
External links
The Asteroid Orbital Elements DatabaseAsteroid Lightcurve Data File*
*
Background asteroids
Bettina
Bettina
M-type asteroids (Tholen)
Xk-type asteroids (SMASS)
18850903
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