Iduna (
minor planet designation: 176 Iduna) is a large
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 that was discovered by German-American astronomer
Christian Heinrich Friedrich Peters
Christian Heinrich Friedrich Peters (September 19, 1813 – July 18, 1890) was a German–American university teacher and astronomer at the Litchfield Observatory of Hamilton College, New York, and a pioneer in the study and visual discovery of ...
on October 14, 1877, in
Clinton, New York. It is named after
Sällskapet Idun, a club in
Stockholm that hosted an astronomical conference;
Idun (Iðunn, Iduna) is also a Norse goddess.
A
G-type asteroid
G-type asteroids are a relatively uncommon type of carbonaceous asteroid that makes up approximately 5% of asteroids. The most notable asteroid in this class is 1 Ceres.
Characteristics
Generally similar to the C-type objects, but contain a ...
, it has a composition similar to that of the largest main-belt asteroid,
1 Ceres.
An
occultation
An occultation is an event that occurs when one object is hidden from the observer by another object that passes between them. The term is often used in astronomy, but can also refer to any situation in which an object in the foreground blocks ...
of a
star by Iduna was observed from Mexico on January 17, 1998.
Photometric observations of this asteroid at the Romer Observatory in
Aarhus, Denmark
Aarhus (, , ; officially spelled Århus from 1948 until 1 January 2011) is the second-largest city in Denmark and the seat of Aarhus Municipality. It is located on the eastern shore of Jutland in the Kattegat sea and approximately northwest ...
during 1996 gave a
light curve
In astronomy, a light curve is a graph of light intensity of a celestial object or region as a function of time, typically with the magnitude of light received on the y axis and with time on the x axis. The light is usually in a particular frequ ...
with a period of 11.289 ± 0.006 hours and a brightness variation of 0.35 in
magnitude
Magnitude may refer to:
Mathematics
*Euclidean vector, a quantity defined by both its magnitude and its direction
*Magnitude (mathematics), the relative size of an object
*Norm (mathematics), a term for the size or length of a vector
*Order of ...
.
A 2008 study at the Palmer Divide Observatory in
Colorado Springs, Colorado gave a period of 11.309 ± 0.005 hours, confirming the 1996 result.
References
External links
Lightcurve plot of 176 Iduna Palmer Divide Observatory, ''
B. D. Warner'' (2007)
Asteroid Lightcurve Database (LCDB) query form
)
Dictionary of Minor Planet Names Google books
– Observatoire de Genève, Raoul Behrend
– Minor Planet Center
*
*
Background asteroids
Iduna
Iduna
G-type asteroids (Tholen)
Ch-type asteroids (SMASS)
18771014
Objects observed by stellar occultation
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