Magdalena ( minor planet designation: 318 Magdalena) is a

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 orbiting the

Sun The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is a nearly perfect ball of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core. The Sun radiates this energy mainly as light, ultraviolet, and infrared radi ...

. It was discovered by

Auguste Charlois Auguste Honoré Charlois (November 26, 1864 – March 26, 1910) was a French astronomer who discovered 99 asteroids while working at the Nice Observatory in southeastern France. Asteroid Discovery His first discovery was the asteroid 267 Tir ...

on 24 September 1891 in

Nice Nice ( , ; Niçard dialect, Niçard: , classical norm, or , nonstandard, ; it, Nizza ; lij, Nissa; grc, Νίκαια; la, Nicaea) is the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes departments of France, department in France. The Nice urban unit, agg ...

. It may be named for Mary Magdalene, who in legend travelled to Southern

Gaul Gaul ( la, Gallia) was a region of Western Europe first described by the Romans. It was inhabited by Celtic and Aquitani tribes, encompassing present-day France, Belgium, Luxembourg, most of Switzerland, parts of Northern Italy (only during ...

and is the patron saint of

Provence Provence (, , , , ; oc, Provença or ''Prouvènço'' , ) is a geographical region and historical province of southeastern France, which extends from the left bank of the lower Rhône to the west to the Italian border to the east; it is bor ...

. On April 15, 2005, UT Magdalena occulted a 10.7 mag star in the constellation

Scutum The ''scutum'' (; plural ''scuta'') was a type of shield used among Italic peoples in antiquity, most notably by the army of ancient Rome starting about the fourth century BC. The Romans adopted it when they switched from the military formati ...

for observers along a path across Australia. Measurements made with the

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 ...

observatory give a diameter of 106.08 ± 0.25 km and a

geometric albedo In astronomy, the geometric albedo of a celestial body is the ratio of its actual brightness as seen from the light source (i.e. at zero phase angle) to that of an ''idealized'' flat, fully reflecting, diffusively scattering ( Lambertian) disk wi ...

of 0.03 ± 0.01. By comparison, the MIPS

photometer A photometer is an instrument that measures the strength of electromagnetic radiation in the range from ultraviolet to infrared and including the visible spectrum. Most photometers convert light into an electric current using a photoresistor, ...

on the Spitzer Space Telescope gives a diameter of 105.32 ± 11.11 km and a geometric albedo of 0.03 ± 0.01. Alternative rock group

The Pixies Pixies is an American alternative rock band formed in 1986, in Boston, Massachusetts. Until 2013, the band consisted of Black Francis (vocals, rhythm guitar, songwriter), Joey Santiago (lead guitar), Kim Deal (bass, vocals) and David Loverin ...

named one of their songs after the asteroid on their album

Indie Cindy ''Indie Cindy'' is the fifth studio album by the American alternative rock band the Pixies. Released in April 2014, it was the band's first album since 1991's '' Trompe le Monde'', and the first Pixies album not to feature bass guitar player Kim D ...

References

External links

* * 000318 Discoveries by Auguste Charlois Named minor planets 000318 18910924 {{Beltasteroid-stub