76 Freia is a very large
main-belt 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 orbits in the outer part of the asteroid belt and is classified as a
Cybele asteroid
The Cybele asteroids (also known as the "Cybeles") are a dynamical group of asteroids, named after the asteroid 65 Cybele. Considered by some as the last outpost of an extended asteroid belt, the group consists of just over 2000 members and ...
.
[ Its composition is very primitive and it is extremely dark in color. Freia was discovered by the ]astronomer
An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses their studies on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. They observe astronomical objects such as stars, planets, natural satellite, moons, comets and galaxy, g ...
Heinrich d'Arrest
Heinrich Louis d'Arrest (13 August 1822 – 14 June 1875; ) was a Germans, German astronomer, born in Berlin. His name is sometimes given as Heinrich Ludwig d'Arrest.
Biography
While still a student at the Humboldt University of Berli ...
on October 21, 1862, in Copenhagen
Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...
, Denmark
)
, song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast")
, song_type = National and royal anthem
, image_map = EU-Denmark.svg
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark
...
. It was his first and only asteroid discovery. It is named after the goddess Freyja in Norse mythology
Norse, Nordic, or Scandinavian mythology is the body of myths belonging to the North Germanic peoples, stemming from Old Norse religion and continuing after the Christianization of Scandinavia, and into the Nordic folklore of the modern period ...
.
The sidereal orbital period
The orbital period (also revolution period) is the amount of time a given astronomical object takes to complete one orbit around another object. In astronomy, it usually applies to planets or asteroids orbiting the Sun, moons orbiting planets ...
of this asteroid is commensurable with that of Jupiter
Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the List of Solar System objects by size, largest in the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a mass more than two and a half times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined, but ...
, which made it useful for ground-based mass estimates of the giant planet.[ A shape model for the asteroid was published by Stephens and Warner (2008), based upon lightcurve data. This yielded a sidereal ]rotation period
The rotation period of a celestial object (e.g., star, gas giant, planet, moon, asteroid) may refer to its sidereal rotation period, i.e. the time that the object takes to complete a single revolution around its axis of rotation relative to the ...
of . They found two possible solutions for the spin axis, with the preferred solution in ecliptic coordinates being (λ, β) = (, ).[
]
References
External links
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Cybele asteroids
Freia
Freia
P-type asteroids (Tholen)
X-type asteroids (SMASS)
18621021
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