Hamburga (

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 ...

: 449 Hamburga) is a carbonaceous

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 background population of the intermediate

asteroid 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 ...

, approximately 75 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered by German astronomers

Max Wolf Maximilian Franz Joseph Cornelius Wolf (21 June 1863 – 3 October 1932) was a German astronomer and a pioneer in the field of astrophotography. He was the chairman of astronomy at the University of Heidelberg and director of the Heidelberg-K� ...

and Friedrich Schwassmann at

Heidelberg Observatory Heidelberg (; Palatine German: ') is a city in the German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914, of which roughly a quarter consisted of students. ...

on 31 October 1899, and later named after the city of

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

in Germany. 449 was a proposed target for the 1980s-1990s space probe mission proposal CRAF.

Description

''Hamburga'' is classified as a

C-type asteroid C-type (carbonaceous) asteroids are the most common variety, forming around 75% of known asteroids. They are volatile-rich and distinguished by a very low albedo because their composition includes a large amount of carbon, in addition to rocks ...

and is probably composed of carbonaceous material. It is named for the city of

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

in Germany. The name was announced in 1901 during a festival held by the Mathematical Society of Hamburg. 449 Hamburga was identified as one of three asteroids that were likely to be a parent body for

chondrite A chondrite is a stony (non-metallic) meteorite that has not been modified, by either melting or differentiation of the parent body. They are formed when various types of dust and small grains in the early Solar System accreted to form primi ...

s along with

304 Olga 3 (three) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 2 and preceding 4, and is the smallest odd prime number and the only prime preceding a square number. It has religious or cultural significance in many societie ...

and 335 Roberta.Lunar and planetary science: abstracts of papers submitted to the ... Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, Volume 27, Part 1 - Lunar and Planetary Institute, 1 January 1996
/ref> All three asteroids were known to have low-albedo (not reflect as much light) and be close to "meteorite producing resonances". Chrondrites are the most common type of meteor found on Earth, accounting for over 80% of all meteors. They are named for the tiny spherical silicate particles that are found inside them (those particles are called chondrules).

Proposed spacecraft visit

In the 1980s and 1990s, NASA considered a spacecraft mission to the asteroid. The mission plan called for a launch in 1995 and a flyby of Hamburga in early 1998. The

McDonald's McDonald's Corporation is an American Multinational corporation, multinational fast food chain store, chain, founded in 1940 as a restaurant operated by Richard and Maurice McDonald, in San Bernardino, California, United States. They rechri ...

chain of restaurants expressed an interest in sponsoring the mission, due the accidental similarity of the asteroid's name to the food item "

hamburger A hamburger, or simply burger, is a food consisting of fillings—usually a patty of ground meat, typically Ground beef, beef—placed inside a sliced bun or bread roll. Hamburgers are often served with cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion, pickles ...

", which was discussed in exploratory meetings between themselves and NASA. In August 1988 in the United States' city of Baltimore, P. Weissman addressed the International Astronomical Union on a mission to this asteroid (449), a mission which also include a rendezvous with Comet Kopf. See

Comet Rendezvous Asteroid Flyby The Comet Rendezvous Asteroid Flyby (CRAF) was a cancelled plan for a NASA-led exploratory mission designed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory during the mid-to-late 1980s and early 1990s, that planned to send a spacecraft to encounter an asteroid ...

for more on the mission to the comet. This mission can also be compared to

Rosetta Rosetta or Rashid (; ar, رشيد ' ; french: Rosette ; cop, ϯⲣⲁϣⲓⲧ ''ti-Rashit'', Ancient Greek: Βολβιτίνη ''Bolbitinē'') is a port city of the Nile Delta, east of Alexandria, in Egypt's Beheira governorate. The Ro ...

, which successfully flew by two minor planets and orbited a Comet during its approach to the Sun in the early 21st century. P. Weissman later worked on the Rosetta mission.

Study

It was predicted that 449 occulted the star

HIP 1424 In vertebrate anatomy, hip (or "coxa"Latin ''coxa'' was used by Celsus in the sense "hip", but by Pliny the Elder in the sense "hip bone" (Diab, p 77) in medical terminology) refers to either an anatomical region or a joint. The hip region is ...

in July 2013. Stellar occultations can allow a chord to be calculated. An asteroid occultation was predicted for 18 Oct 2018 with the magnitude 12 star UCAC4-557-042266.

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:Hamburga 000449 Discoveries by Max Wolf Discoveries by Friedrich Karl Arnold Schwassmann Named minor planets 000449 18991031

Description

Proposed spacecraft visit

Study

See also

References

External links