(45) Eugenia I Petit-Prince is the larger, outer
moon
The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It is the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System and the largest and most massive relative to its parent planet, with a diameter about one-quarter that of Earth (comparable to the width of ...
of asteroid
45 Eugenia. It was discovered in 1998 by astronomers at the
Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope on
Mauna Kea, Hawaii. Initially, it received the
provisional designation
Provisional designation in astronomy is the naming convention applied to astronomical objects immediately following their discovery. The provisional designation is usually superseded by a permanent designation once a reliable orbit has been cal ...
S/1998 (45) 1. Petit-Prince was the first
asteroid moon to be discovered with a ground-based telescope. Previously, the only known moon of an asteroid was
Dactyl, discovered by the
Galileo space probe, around
243 Ida
Ida, minor planet designation 243 Ida, is an asteroid in the Koronis family of the asteroid belt. It was discovered on 29 September 1884 by Austrian astronomer Johann Palisa at Vienna Observatory and named after a nymph from Greek mythology. ...
.
Characteristics
Petit-Prince is 13 km in diameter, compared to 45 Eugenia's 214 km. It takes five days to complete an orbit around Eugenia.
Name
The discoverers chose the name in honour of
Empress Eugénie
An emperor (from la, imperator, via fro, empereor) is a monarch, and usually the sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife ( empress consort), mother (empr ...
's son, the
Prince Imperial.
However, they also intended an allusion to the children's book ''
The Little Prince
''The Little Prince'' (french: Le Petit Prince, ) is a novella by French aristocrat, writer, and military pilot Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. It was first published in English and French in the United States by Reynal & Hitchcock in April 1943 an ...
'' by
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, which is about a prince who lives on an asteroid.
In their submission of the name to the
IAU
The International Astronomical Union (IAU; french: link=yes, Union astronomique internationale, UAI) is a nongovernmental organisation with the objective of advancing astronomy in all aspects, including promoting astronomical research, outreach ...
, the discovers justified the double meaning by arguing for similarities between the Prince Imperial and the Little Prince:
:"Both princes were young and adventurous, and had little fear of danger. Both were of rather small stature. They both left the confines of their cozy little worlds (asteroid
B612 for the Little Prince and
Chislehurst for the Prince Imperial). They both then undertook long journeys to end up in Africa, whereupon they both meet rather violent deaths ... And in both cases they lay alone for one night each after "death" and then "returned" back home..."
See also
*
2578 Saint-Exupéry
*
46610 Bésixdouze, named ''B-six-twelve'' in French (and whose number equals the hexadecimal number B612)
References
External links
Data sheet compiled by W. Robert Johnston
announcing Petit-Prince's naming
includes diagrams
{{Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Asteroid satellites
House of Bonaparte
The Little Prince
19981101