Aëria, (

minor planet designation A formal minor-planet designation is, in its final form, a number–name combination given to a minor planet (asteroid, centaur, trans-Neptunian object and dwarf planet but not comet). Such designation always features a leading number (catalog or ...

: 369 Aëria) provisional designation , is a metallic

asteroid An asteroid is a minor planet of the 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 or icy bodies with no atmosphere. ...

and the parent body of the

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 ...

. It orbits in the central region of the asteroid belt, rotates every 4.778 hours and measures approximately 65 kilometers in diameter. The asteroid was discovered on 4 July 1893, by French astronomer Alphonse Borrelly at the Marseille Observatory in southeastern France. It was named for " Air", one of the four

classical element Classical elements typically refer to earth, water, air, fire, and (later) aether which were proposed to explain the nature and complexity of all matter in terms of simpler substances. Ancient cultures in Greece, Tibet, and India had simil ...

s: earth, water, air and fire.

Orbit and classification

''Aëria'' is the parent body of the

(), a small

asteroid 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 ...

of less than 300 known members, while he Lightcurve Data Base dynamically groups it to the much larger Eunomia family (). Named members of the Aeria family include

1184 Gaea 1184 Gaea, provisional designation , is an Aerian asteroid from the central regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 20 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 5 September 1926, by astronomer Karl Reinmuth at the Heidelberg-Königstuhl S ...

3324 Avsyuk 33 may refer to: *33 (number) *33 BC *AD 33 *1933 *2033 Music * ''33'' (Luis Miguel album) (2003) * ''33'' (Southpacific album) (1998) * ''33'' (Wanessa album) (2016) *"33 'GOD'", a 2016 song by Bon Iver * "Thirty-Three" (song), a 1995 song by th ...

130066 Timhaltigin Thirteen or 13 may refer to: * 13 (number), the natural number following 12 and preceding 14 * One of the years 13 BC, AD 13, 1913, 2013 Music * 13AD (band), an Indian classic and hard rock band Albums * ''13'' (Black Sabbath album), 2013 * ...

and

144303 Mirellabreschi Year 1443 ( MCDXLIII) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events January–December * July 22 – Battle of St. Jakob an der Sihl ( Old Zürich War): The forces of th ...

. ''Aëria'' orbits the Sun in the

central Central is an adjective usually referring to being in the center of some place or (mathematical) object. Central may also refer to: Directions and generalised locations * Central Africa, a region in the centre of Africa continent, also known as ...

main-belt at a distance of 2.4–2.9 AU once every 4 years and 4 months (1,577 days). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.10 and an inclination of 13 ° with respect to the ecliptic. The body's observation arc begins at Marseille on 6 July 1893, two nights after its official discovery observation.

Physical characteristics

In the Tholen classification, ''Aëria'' is a metallic M-type asteroid. This agrees with the more generic X-type, assigned to members of the

Rotation period

Several rotational lightcurves of ''Aëria'' have been obtained from photometric observations since 1984, when it was first observed at ESO's La Silla Observatory in Chile. Lightcurve analysis gave a consolidated

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 4.778 hours with a brightness amplitude between 0.04 and 0.13 magnitude ().

Diameter and albedo

According to the surveys carried out by the Infrared Astronomical Satellite IRAS, the Japanese Akari satellite and the NEOWISE mission of NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, ''Aëria'' measures between 60.00 and 73.77 kilometers in diameter and its surface has an albedo between 0.127 and 0.1919. The ''Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link'' adopts the results obtained by IRAS, that is, an albedo of 0.1919 and a diameter of 60.0 kilometers based on an absolute magnitude of 8.52.

Occultation events

Aëria has been observed by astronomers during at least two occultation events: the first in December 2015 and the other in February 2018. These provided information on the size and shape of the asteroid.

Naming

This minor planet was named after " Air", one of the four

s: earth, water, air and fire. It is thought that the asteroid's name may have also been inspired by the two letters of its provisional designation, .

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:Aeria 000369 Discoveries by Alphonse Borrelly Named minor planets 000369 18930704