881 Athene (
''prov. designation'': ''or'' ) is a stony
background asteroid from the central region of the
asteroid belt. It was discovered on 22 July 1917, by astronomer
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� ...
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 likely elongated
S/
L-type asteroid
L-type asteroids are relatively uncommon asteroids with a strongly reddish spectrum shortwards of 0.75 μm, and a featureless flat spectrum longwards of this. In comparison with the K-type, they exhibit a more reddish spectrum at visible wavele ...
has a
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 13.9 hours and measures approximately in diameter. It was named after
Athena
Athena or Athene, often given the epithet Pallas, is an ancient Greek goddess associated with wisdom, warfare, and handicraft who was later syncretized with the Roman goddess Minerva. Athena was regarded as the patron and protectress of ...
, the goddess of wisdom in
Greek mythology
A major branch of classical mythology, Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the Ancient Greece, ancient Greeks, and a genre of Ancient Greek folklore. These stories concern the Cosmogony, origin and Cosmology#Metaphysical co ...
.
Orbit and classification
Located in or near the orbital region of the
Eunomia family The Eunomia or Eunomian family () is a large asteroid family of S-type asteroids named after the asteroid 15 Eunomia. It is the most prominent family in the intermediate asteroid belt and the 6th-largest family with nearly six thousand known members ...
,
''Athene'' is a non-
family
Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...
asteroid of the main belt's
background population when applying the
hierarchical clustering method to its
proper orbital elements
__NOTOC__
The proper orbital elements or proper elements of an orbit are constants of motion of an object in space that remain practically unchanged over an astronomically long timescale. The term is usually used to describe the three quantitie ...
.
It orbits the Sun in the
central
Central is an adjective usually referring to being in the center of some place or (mathematical) object.
Central may also refer to:
Directions and generalised locations
* Central Africa, a region in the centre of Africa continent, also known as ...
asteroid belt at a distance of 2.1–3.2
AU once every 4 years and 3 months (1,543 days;
semi-major axis
In geometry, the major axis of an ellipse is its longest diameter: a line segment that runs through the center and both foci, with ends at the two most widely separated points of the perimeter. The semi-major axis (major semiaxis) is the long ...
of 2.61 AU). Its orbit has an
eccentricity of 0.21 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 14
° with respect to the
ecliptic.
The body'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 at
Uccle Observatory
The Royal Observatory of Belgium (french: link=no, Observatoire Royal de Belgique, nl, Koninklijke Sterrenwacht van België), has been situated in the Uccle municipality of Brussels (Belgium) since 1890. It was first established in Saint-Josse ...
on 8 August 1934, almost 17 years after its official discovery observation at Heidelberg on 22 July 1917.
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 ...
was named after
Athena
Athena or Athene, often given the epithet Pallas, is an ancient Greek goddess associated with wisdom, warfare, and handicraft who was later syncretized with the Roman goddess Minerva. Athena was regarded as the patron and protectress of ...
or "Pallas Athene", the goddess of wisdom in
Greek mythology
A major branch of classical mythology, Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the Ancient Greece, ancient Greeks, and a genre of Ancient Greek folklore. These stories concern the Cosmogony, origin and Cosmology#Metaphysical co ...
, also known as
Minerva
Minerva (; ett, Menrva) is the Roman goddess of wisdom, justice, law, victory, and the sponsor of arts, trade, and strategy. Minerva is not a patron of violence such as Mars, but of strategic war. From the second century BC onward, the Roma ...
in
Roman mythology
Roman mythology is the body of myths of ancient Rome as represented in the literature and visual arts of the Romans. One of a wide variety of genres of Roman folklore, ''Roman mythology'' may also refer to the modern study of these representat ...
. The was mentioned in ''
The Names of the Minor Planets'' by
Paul Herget in 1955 (). Asteroids
93 Minerva and
2 Pallas
Pallas (minor-planet designation: 2 Pallas) is the third-largest asteroid in the Solar System by volume and mass. It is the second asteroid to have been discovered, after Ceres, and is a likely remnant protoplanet. Like Ceres, it is bel ...
are both named after the goddess as well.
Physical characteristics
In the Tholen-like taxonomy of the
Small Solar System Objects Spectroscopic Survey (S3OS2), ''Athene'' is a common, 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 ...
, while in the
SDSS-based taxonomy, it is an
L-type asteroid
L-type asteroids are relatively uncommon asteroids with a strongly reddish spectrum shortwards of 0.75 μm, and a featureless flat spectrum longwards of this. In comparison with the K-type, they exhibit a more reddish spectrum at visible wavele ...
.
In the SMASS-like taxonomic variant of the S3OS2, ''Athene'' is an Sl-subtype that transitions between the S-and L-type.
Rotation period
In August 2006, a rotational
lightcurve of ''Athene'' was obtained from
photometric observations by Roberto Crippa and Federico Manzini at the Sozzago Astronomical Station , Italy, and by Jean-Gabriel Bosch at the Collonges Observatory , France. Lightcurve analysis gave a
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 hours with a high brightness variation of
magnitude, indicative of a non-spherical, elongated shape (). In September 2010, French amateur astronomer
René Roy measured a similar period of hours and an amplitude of ().
Poles
Two lightcurves, published in 2016, using modeled photometric data from the Lowell Photometric Database (LPD) and other sources, gave a concurring sidereal period of and hours, respectively. Each modeled lightcurve also determined two
spin axes of (123.0°, −58.0°) and (337.0°, −47.0°), as well as (115.0°, −77.0°) and (338.0°, −43.0°) in
ecliptic coordinates (λ, β).
Diameter and albedo
According to the surveys carried out by the Japanese
Akari satellite and the
NEOWISE mission of NASA's
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, ...
(WISE), ''Athene'' measures () and () kilometers in diameter and its surface has an
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 () and (), respectively.
The ''Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link'' assumes a standard Eunomian albedo of 0.21 and calculates a diameter of 12.66 kilometers based on an
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 ...
of 11.8.
Alternative
mean diameter measurements published by the WISE team include (), () and () with corresponding albedos of (), () and ().
References
External links
Lightcurve Database Query(LCDB), at ''www.minorplanet.info''
Dictionary of Minor Planet Names Google books
– ''Geneva Observatory'',
Raoul Behrend
Discovery Circumstances: Numbered Minor Planets (1)-(5000)– Minor Planet Center
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Athene
000881
Discoveries by Max Wolf
Named minor planets
19170722