1376 Michelle, provisional designation , is a stony Florian
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 inner 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 8 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 29 October 1935, by French astronomer
Guy Reiss at the North African
Algiers Observatory in Algeria.
It is named after the discoverer's third daughter, Michelle Reiss.
Classification and orbit
''Michelle'' is a member of the
Flora family, one of the largest populations of stony
S-type asteroids in the entire main-belt. It orbits the Sun at a distance of 1.7–2.7
AU once every 3 years and 4 months (1,215 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 0.22 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 4
° 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 ...
.
''Michelle'' was first identified as at
Lowell Observatory
Lowell Observatory is an astronomical observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, United States. Lowell Observatory was established in 1894, placing it among the oldest observatories in the United States, and was designated a National Historic Landmark ...
in 1931. 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 ...
, however, begins with its official discovery observation at Algiers.
Lightcurve
In October 2008, a group of French and Japanese astronomers obtained two rotational
light-curves of ''Michelle'' from photometric observations. Light-curve analysis gave a well defined
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 5.9748 and 5.9766 hours with a brightness variation of 0.20 and 0.13
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 ...
, respectively ().
The results concur with a period of 5.9769 hours obtained by a group of Polish astronomers in April 2004 (),
and with a period of 6.0 hours measured by JPL-photometrist
Wiesław Wiśniewski in the 1980s ().
Diameter and albedo
According to the 2015-published results by 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 ...
with its subsequent
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, ''Michelle'' measures 9.12 kilometers in diameter and its surface has an
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 0.28,
while preliminary results gave a diameter of 7.1 kilometers and an albedo of 0.267.
The ''Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link'' adopts an albedo of 0.263 and a diameter of 7.10 kilometers, taken from
Petr Pravec's 2012-revised WISE results.
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 for Michelle Reiss, the third daughter of the discoverer.
The discoverer also named
1237 Geneviève and
1300 Marcelle after his other two daughters. Naming was first cited in ''
The Names of the Minor Planets'' by
Paul Herget in 1955 ().
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:Michelle
001376
Discoveries by Guy Reiss
Named minor planets
19351029