Virginia (
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 ...
: 50 Virginia) is a large, very dark
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
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.
...
. It was discovered by American astronomer James Ferguson (American astronomer), James Ferguson on October 4, 1857, from the United States Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C. German astronomer Karl Theodor Robert Luther, Robert Luther discovered it independently on October 19 from Düsseldorf, and his discovery was announced first.
The reason for Virginia's name is not known; it may be named after Verginia, the Roman Empire, Roman noblewoman slain by her father, but it may alternatively have been named after the American state of Virginia.
Photometry (astronomy), Photometric observations of this asteroid at the Organ Mesa Observatory in Las Cruces, New Mexico, during 2008 gave a light curve with a period of 14.315 ± 0.001 hours and a brightness variation of 0.19 ± 0.02 in Magnitude (astronomy), magnitude. The shape of the light curve at the maximum was found to change with Phase angle (astronomy), phase angle.
The orbit of 50 Virginia places it in an 11:4 mean motion resonance with the planet Jupiter. The computed Lyapunov time for this asteroid is only 10,000 years, indicating that it occupies a chaotic orbit that will change randomly over time because of gravitational perturbations of the planets.
Virginia has been studied by radar astronomy, radar.
References
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Background asteroids
Discoveries by Robert Luther, Virginia
Discoveries by James Ferguson (American astronomer), Virginia
Named minor planets, Virginia
X-type asteroids (Tholen)
Ch-type asteroids (SMASS)
Astronomical objects discovered in 1857, 18571004
Resonance with Jupiter