1675 Simonida, provisional designation , is a stony Florian

asteroid An asteroid is a minor planet of the Solar System#Inner solar system, inner Solar System. Sizes and shapes of asteroids vary significantly, ranging from 1-meter rocks to a dwarf planet almost 1000 km in diameter; they are rocky, metallic o ...

from the inner regions of the

asteroid 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 ...

, approximately 11 kilometers in diameter. Discovered by

Milorad Protić Milorad (Cyrillic script: Милорад; Polish language, Polish: Miłorad) is an old Serbian masculine given name derived from the Slavic names, Slavic elements: ''milo'' meaning "gracious, dear" and ''rad'' meaning "work, care, joy". The feminine ...

in 1938, it was later named after the medieval Byzantine princess

Simonida Simonida Nemanjić ( sr-cyr, Симонида Немањић; c. 1294 – after 1336), born Simonis Palaiologina ( el, Σιμωνίς Παλαιολογίνα, sr. Симонида Палеолог, ''Simonida Paleolog''), was a Byzantine princes ...

Discovery

''Simonida'' was discovered on 20 March 1938, by Serbian astronomer

Belgrade Astronomical Observatory Belgrade Observatory is an astronomical observatory located in the eastern part of Belgrade, Serbia, in the natural environment of Zvezdara Forest. History Origin (1887–1891) In 1879, Milan Nedeljković (1857–1950) received a scholarship ...

. On the same night, it was independently discovered by Belgian astronomer

Fernand Rigaux Fernand Rigaux (1905 – 21 September 1962) was a Belgian astronomer and observer of variable stars, minor planets and comets at the Royal Observatory at Uccle, Belgium. In 1951, he co-discovered the periodic comet 49P/Arend-Rigaux with his c ...

Uccle Observatory The Royal Observatory of Belgium (french: link=no, Observatoire Royal de Belgique, nl, Koninklijke Sterrenwacht van België), has been situated in the Uccle municipality of Brussels (Belgium) since 1890. It was first established in Saint-Josse ...

in Belgium.

Classification and orbit

The

S-type asteroid S-type asteroids are asteroids with a spectral type that is indicative of a siliceous (i.e. stony) mineralogical composition, hence the name. They have relatively high density. Approximately 17% of asteroids are of this type, making it the secon ...

is a member of the

Flora family The Flora family (''adj. Florian''; ; also known as ''Ariadne family'') is a prominent family of stony asteroids located in the inner region of the asteroid belt. It is one of the largest families with more than 13,000 known members, or appro ...

, a large population of stony asteroids in the main-belt. It orbits the Sun at a distance of 2.0–2.5 AU once every 3 years and 4 months (1,219 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- center, in geometry * Eccentricity (graph theory) of a ...

of 0.12 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 Plane of reference, reference plane and the orbital plane or Axis of rotation, axis of direction of the orbiting object ...

of 7 ° with respect to the

ecliptic The ecliptic or ecliptic plane is the orbital plane of the Earth around the Sun. From the perspective of an observer on Earth, the Sun's movement around the celestial sphere over the course of a year traces out a path along the ecliptic agai ...

. ''Simonida'' first observation was a

precovery In astronomy, precovery (short for pre-discovery recovery) is the process of finding the image of an object in images or photographic plates predating its discovery, typically for the purpose of calculating a more accurate orbit. This happens mo ...

taken 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, extending 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 ...

by 7 years prior to its official discovery observation.

Physical characteristics

Lightcurves

In March 1988, Polish astronomer Wiesław Z. Wiśniewski obtained a

lightcurve 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 ...

of ''Simonida'' that gave a

rotation period The rotation period of a celestial object (e.g., star, gas giant, planet, moon, asteroid) may refer to its sidereal rotation period, i.e. the time that the object takes to complete a single revolution around its axis of rotation relative to the ...

of 5.3 hours with a brightness variation of 0.26

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 ...

(). In January 2004, astronomer A. Kryszczynska at

Poznań Observatory Poznań Observatory ( pl, Obserwatorium Astronomiczne Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza w Poznaniu or "OA UAM", obs. code: 047) is an astronomical observatory owned and operated by the physics department of Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań. I ...

measured a period of 5.2885 hours with an amplitude of 0.50 magnitude (). In January 2008, photometric observations by astronomers Martine Castets, Bernard Trégon, Arnaud Leroy and

Raoul Behrend This is a list of minor-planet discoverers credited by the Minor Planet Center with the discovery of one or several minor planets (such as near-Earth and main-belt asteroids, Jupiter trojans and distant objects). , the discovery of 612,011 numb ...

gave a rotation period of 5.16 hours with a brightness variation of 0.21 ().

Diameter and albedo

According to the space-based Japanese

Akari Akari (ASTRO-F) was an infrared astronomy satellite developed by Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, in cooperation with institutes of Europe and Korea. It was launched on 21 February 2006, at 21:28 UTC (06:28, 22 February JST) by M-V roc ...

satellite, ''Simonida'' measures 12.16 kilometers in diameter, and its surface has an

albedo Albedo (; ) is the measure of the diffuse reflection of solar radiation out of the total solar radiation and measured on a scale from 0, corresponding to a black body that absorbs all incident radiation, to 1, corresponding to a body that refl ...

of 0.211. The ''Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link'', however, agrees with the results obtained by 8 observations of the Infrared Astronomical Satellite

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 ...

, that gave a diameter of 11.08 kilometers and an albedo of 0.25 with an absolute magnitude of 11.9.

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 '' ...

was named for Byzantine princess and queen consort

, the wife of medieval Serbian king

Stefan Milutin Stefan Uroš II Milutin ( sr-cyr, Стефан Урош II Милутин, Stefan Uroš II Milutin; 1253 – 29 October 1321), known as Stefan Milutin ( sr-cyr, Стефан Милутин, Stefan Milutin), was the King of Serbia between 1282&nd ...

and symbol of beauty in former Yugoslavia. The official was published by the

Minor Planet Center The Minor Planet Center (MPC) is the official body for observing and reporting on minor planets under the auspices of the International Astronomical Union (IAU). Founded in 1947, it operates at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. Function ...

on 1 January 1973 ().

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:Simonida 001675 Discoveries by Milorad B. Protić Named minor planets 19380320