804 Hispania is a

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 ''mino ...

orbiting the

Sun The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is a nearly perfect ball of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core. The Sun radiates this energy mainly as light, ultraviolet, and infrared radi ...

. It was discovered from

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

(

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

) on 20 March 1915 by Josep Comas Solá (1868–1937), the first asteroid to be discovered by a

Spaniard Spaniards, or Spanish people, are a Romance ethnic group native to Spain. Within Spain, there are a number of national and regional ethnic identities that reflect the country's complex history, including a number of different languages, both i ...

. ''Hispania'' is a carbonaceous

C-type asteroid C-type (carbonaceous) asteroids are the most common variety, forming around 75% of known asteroids. They are volatile-rich and distinguished by a very low albedo because their composition includes a large amount of carbon, in addition to rocks ...

. Busarev and Taran (2002) classed it as CP type with a spectrum that shows a highly hydrated body. It has a diameter of 122 kilometers according to measurements made with the

W. M. Keck Observatory The W. M. Keck Observatory is an astronomical observatory with two telescopes at an elevation of 4,145 meters (13,600 ft) near the summit of Mauna Kea in the U.S. state of Hawaii. Both telescopes have aperture primary mirrors, and when comp ...

. This is 30% smaller than the size estimated from the

IRAS The Infrared Astronomical Satellite (Dutch: ''Infrarood Astronomische Satelliet'') (IRAS) was the first space telescope to perform a survey of the entire night sky at infrared wavelengths. Launched on 25 January 1983, its mission lasted ten mo ...

observatory data. It has a size ratio of 1.16 between its major and minor axes. Two alternate rotation periods have been found for this asteroid: 7.4 hours and double that at 14.8 hours. To explain this discrepancy, it is possible the asteroid has a peculiar shape or it may be a double asteroid.

References

External links

Discovery Circumstances: Numbered Minor Planets (1)-(5000)
– Minor Planet Center * * 000804 Discoveries by Josep Comas Solà Named minor planets 000804 000804 19150320 {{beltasteroid-stub