4401 Aditi, provisional designation , is an eccentric, stony

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. ...

, classified as a

near-Earth object A near-Earth object (NEO) is any small Solar System body whose orbit brings it into proximity with Earth. By convention, a Solar System body is a NEO if its closest approach to the Sun (perihelion) is less than 1.3 astronomical units (AU). ...

and Amor asteroid, approximately 1.8 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 14 October 1985 by American astronomer Carolyn Shoemaker at

Palomar Observatory Palomar Observatory is an astronomical research observatory in San Diego County, California, United States, in the Palomar Mountain Range. It is owned and operated by the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). Research time at the observat ...

in California, and later named after the Hindu goddess

Aditi Aditi (Sanskrit: अदिति, lit. 'boundless' or 'limitless' or 'innocence') is an important Vedic goddess in Hinduism. She is the personification of the sprawling infinite and vast cosmos. She is the goddess of motherhood, consciousne ...

Classification and orbit

''Aditi'' orbits the Sun at a distance of 1.1–4.0 AU once every 4 years and 2 months (1,513 days). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.56 and an

inclination Orbital inclination measures the tilt of an object's orbit around a celestial body. It is expressed as the angle between a Plane of reference, reference plane and the orbital plane or Axis of rotation, axis of direction of the orbiting object ...

of 27 ° with respect to the ecliptic. The asteroid's

observation arc In observational astronomy, the observation arc (or arc length) of a Solar System body is the time period between its earliest and latest observations, used for tracing the body's path. It is usually given in days or years. The term is mostly use ...

begins with its discovery, as no precoveries were taken and no identifications were made before 1985. With an Earth minimum orbit intersection distance, MOID, of , or 128.6 lunar distances, it never approaches Earth close enough to be classified as a

potentially hazardous object A potentially hazardous object (PHO) is a near-Earth object – either an asteroid or a comet – with an orbit that can make close approaches to the Earth and is large enough to cause significant regional damage in the event of impact. They ar ...

, for which an upper MOID-limit of 0.05 AU is defined.

Physical characteristics

Lightcurves

Two rotational lightcurves of ''Aditi'' were obtained from photometric observations by American astronomer Brian Warner at his Palmer Divide Observatory, Colorado, in August 2014 and March 2015, respectively. The first lightcurve rendered a period of hours with a brightness variation of 0.64 (), while the second one gave a period of hours with an amplitude of 0.29 magnitude (). Additional lightcurves were obtained by Benishek () and Manzini ().

Diameter and albedo

According to the survey carried out by NASA's space-based

Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE, observatory code C51, Explorer 92 and SMEX-6) is a NASA infrared astronomy space telescope in the Explorers Program. It was launched in December 2009, and placed in hibernation mode in February 2011, ...

with its subsequent NEOWISE mission, ''Aditi'' has a high

albedo Albedo (; ) is the measure of the diffuse reflection of sunlight, solar radiation out of the total solar radiation and measured on a scale from 0, corresponding to a black body that absorbs all incident radiation, to 1, corresponding to a body ...

of 0.34 with a corresponding diameter of 1.80 kilometers. The ''Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link'' assumes a standard albedo for stony

S-type asteroid S-type asteroids are asteroids with a spectral type that is indicative of a siliceous (i.e. stony) mineralogical composition, hence the name. They have relatively high density. Approximately 17% of asteroids are of this type, making it the second ...

s of 0.20 and calculates a slightly larger diameter of 1.88 kilometers, as the lower the body's albedo (reflectivity), the higher its diameter, at a constant

absolute magnitude Absolute magnitude () is a measure of the luminosity of a celestial object on an inverse Logarithmic scale, logarithmic Magnitude (astronomy), astronomical magnitude scale. An object's absolute magnitude is defined to be equal to the apparent mag ...

(brightness).

Naming

This

minor planet According to the International Astronomical Union (IAU), a minor planet is an astronomical object in direct orbit around the Sun that is exclusively classified as neither a planet nor a comet. Before 2006, the IAU officially used the term ''minor ...

is named after the Hindu goddess

, celestial mother of every existing form and being. She was the mother of the

thirty-three gods The Thirty-three gods or Tridasha (Sanskrit "three times ten") is a pantheon of Hindu deities, of Vedic origin and a few of later development.Mani pp. 654–5 The Samhitas, which are the oldest layer of text in Vedas, enumerate 33 devas, either ...

, including the Vasus, the

Rudras Rudras refer to the forms of the god Rudra, whose traditions have since been associated with Shiva. They make up eleven of the thirty-three gods in the Vedic pantheon.Hopkins pp. 172-3 They are at times identified with the storm deities referred ...

, and the Ādityas, the twelve zodiacal spirits. She is described in Vedic literature as the gods of the heavenly light. The official naming citation was published on 30 January 1991 ().

Classification and orbit

Physical characteristics

Lightcurves

Diameter and albedo

Naming

Notes

References

External links