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.
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and the parent body of the Charis family, located in the outer regions of the
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 49 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 4 March 1907, by German astronomer
August Kopff
August Kopff (February 5, 1882 – April 25, 1960) was a German astronomer and discoverer of several comets and asteroids.
Kopff studied and worked in Heidelberg, getting his PhD there in 1906 and he then joined the Humboldt University of Berli ...
at the
Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory
Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory (german: Landessternwarte Heidelberg-Königstuhl) is a historic astronomical observatory located near the summit of the Königstuhl hill in the city of Heidelberg in Germany. The predecessor of the curre ...
in southwest Germany. The asteroid was named after the Greek goddess
Charis
In Greek mythology, the Charites ( ), singular ''Charis'', or Graces, were three or more goddesses of charm, beauty, nature, human creativity, goodwill, and fertility. Hesiod names three – Aglaea ("Shining"), Euphrosyne ("Joy"), and Thalia ...
, a name which may have been inspired by the asteroid's provisional designation ''1907 XS''. ('Charis' is in Greek is spelled 'Χάρις'.)
Orbit and classification
''Charis'' is the
parent body
In meteoritics, a parent body is the celestial body from which originates a meteorite or a class of meteorites.
Identification
The easiest way to correlate a meteorite with a parent body is when the parent body still exists. This is the case fo ...
asteroid family
An asteroid family is a population of asteroids that share similar proper orbital elements, such as semimajor axis, eccentricity, and orbital inclination. The members of the families are thought to be fragments of past asteroid collisions. An a ...
of more than 800 known members. It orbits the Sun in the