1184 Gaea, provisional designation , is an Aerian

asteroid An asteroid is a minor planet—an object larger than a meteoroid that is neither a planet nor an identified comet—that orbits within the Solar System#Inner Solar System, inner Solar System or is co-orbital with Jupiter (Trojan asteroids). As ...

from the central regions of the

asteroid belt The asteroid belt is a torus-shaped region in the Solar System, centered on the Sun and roughly spanning the space between the orbits of the planets Jupiter and Mars. It contains a great many solid, irregularly shaped bodies called asteroids ...

, approximately 20 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 5 September 1926, by astronomer

Karl Reinmuth Karl Wilhelm Reinmuth (4 April 1892 in Heidelberg – 6 May 1979 in Heidelberg) was a German astronomer and a prolific discoverer of 395 minor planets. Scientific career From 1912 to 1957, Reinmuth was working as an astronomer at the He ...

at the

Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory () is a historic astronomical observatory located near the summit of the Königstuhl hill in the city of Heidelberg in Germany. It is operated by the ''Center for Astronomy (ZAH)'' at the University of He ...

in southwest Germany. The asteroid was named after the goddess of Earth,

Gaea In Greek mythology, Gaia (; , a poetic form of ('), meaning 'land' or 'earth'),, , . also spelled Gaea (), is the personification of Earth. Gaia is the ancestral mother—sometimes parthenogenic—of all life. She is the mother of Uranus (S ...

(Gaia), from Greek mythology.

Orbit and classification

''Gaea'' is a member of the small

Aeria family An asteroid family is a population of asteroids that share similar proper orbital elements, such as semimajor axis, eccentricity, and orbital inclination. The members of the families are thought to be fragments of past asteroid collisions. An a ...

(), named after its parent body 369 Aeria. It orbits the Sun in the central main-belt at a distance of 2.5–2.9 AU once every 4 years and 4 months (1,592 days). Its orbit has an

eccentricity Eccentricity or eccentric may refer to: * Eccentricity (behavior), odd behavior on the part of a person, as opposed to being "normal" Mathematics, science and technology Mathematics * Off-Centre (geometry), center, in geometry * Eccentricity (g ...

of 0.07 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 reference plane and the orbital plane or axis of direction of the orbiting object. For a satellite orbiting the Eart ...

of 11 ° with respect to the

ecliptic The ecliptic or ecliptic plane is the orbital plane of Earth's orbit, Earth around the Sun. It was a central concept in a number of ancient sciences, providing the framework for key measurements in astronomy, astrology and calendar-making. Fr ...

. 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 Heidelberg in November 1925, more than 2 months after its official discovery observation.

Physical characteristics

The asteroid's

spectral type In astronomy, stellar classification is the classification of stars based on their spectral characteristics. Electromagnetic radiation from the star is analyzed by splitting it with a prism or diffraction grating into a spectrum exhibiting the ...

is unknown. The LCDB assumes a stony ( S) or carbonaceous ( C) composition to be equally likely, while the overall spectral type for members of the

is that of an X-type. The high albedo figures obtained from observations with the WISE telescope do not agree with neither of these spectral types ''(see below)''.

Rotation period

In January 2011, a rotational

lightcurve In astronomy, a light curve is a graph (discrete mathematics), graph of the Radiance, light intensity of a celestial object or region as a function of time, typically with the magnitude (astronomy), magnitude of light received on the ''y''-axis ...

of ''Gaea'' was obtained from photometric observations by French amateur astronomer René Roy. Lightcurve analysis gave a short

rotation period In astronomy, the rotation period or spin period of a celestial object (e.g., star, planet, moon, asteroid) has two definitions. The first one corresponds to the '' sidereal rotation period'' (or ''sidereal day''), i.e., the time that the objec ...

of 2.94 hours with a brightness amplitude of 0.09

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 low brightness amplitude also indicates that the body might have a spheroidal rather than an irregular shape.

Diameter and albedo

According to the survey carried out by the

NEOWISE Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE, observatory code C51, Explorer 92 and MIDEX-6) was a NASA infrared astronomy space telescope in the Explorers Program launched in December 2009.. . WISE discovered thousands of minor planets and nu ...

mission of NASA's

Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE, List of observatory codes, observatory code C51, Explorer 92 and MIDEX-6) was a NASA infrared astronomy Space observatory, space telescope in the Explorers Program launched in December 2009.. . WISE L ...

, ''Gaea'' measures 11.783 and 12.048 kilometers in diameter and its surface has a high

albedo Albedo ( ; ) is the fraction of sunlight that is Diffuse reflection, diffusely reflected by a body. It is measured on a scale from 0 (corresponding to a black body that absorbs all incident radiation) to 1 (corresponding to a body that reflects ...

of 0.462 and 0.4512, respectively. The ''Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link'' assumes an albedo of 0.10 – a compromise value between the stony (0.20) and carbonaceous (0.057) asteroids, both found abundantly in this region of the asteroid belt – and consequently calculates a much larger diameter of 26.52 kilometers based on an absolute magnitude of 11.0.

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

Gaia In Greek mythology, Gaia (; , a poetic form of ('), meaning 'land' or 'earth'),, , . also spelled Gaea (), is the personification of Earth. Gaia is the ancestral mother—sometimes parthenogenic—of all life. She is the mother of Uranus (S ...

(or Gaea), the goddess of Earth in

Greek mythology Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the Ancient Greece, ancient Greeks, and a genre of ancient Greek folklore, today absorbed alongside Roman mythology into the broader designation of classical mythology. These stories conc ...

. Her son ''and'' husband was

Uranus Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun. It is a gaseous cyan-coloured ice giant. Most of the planet is made of water, ammonia, and methane in a Supercritical fluid, supercritical phase of matter, which astronomy calls "ice" or Volatile ( ...

, the god of the sky. Uranus and Gaia were the parents of the first generation of Titans (six males and six females), and the ancestors of most of the Greek gods. The asteroid's name was proposed by German ARI-astronomer Gustav Stracke after whom the asteroid

1019 Strackea 1019 Strackea, provisional designation , is a stony Hungaria asteroid of the inner asteroid belt, approximately 8 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 3 March 1924, by astronomer Karl Reinmuth at Heidelberg Observatory in southwest Germa ...

was named.

Notes

References

External links

Asteroid Lightcurve Database (LCDB)
query form

)
Dictionary of Minor Planet Names
Google books

– Observatoire de Genève, Raoul Behrend

– Minor Planet Center * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gaea 001184 Discoveries by Karl Wilhelm Reinmuth Named minor planets 19260905