379 Huenna is a large

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 ...

orbiting in 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 ...

. It is part of the

Themis family The Themis family (''adj. Themistian''; ) is a family of carbonaceous asteroids located in the outer portion of the asteroid belt, at a mean distance of 3.13 AU from the Sun. It is one of the largest families with over 4700 known members, and c ...

, and thus a

C-type asteroid C-type (carbonaceous ) asteroids are the most common variety, forming around 75% of known asteroids. They are volatile-rich and distinguished by a very low albedo because their composition includes a large amount of carbon, in addition to rocks ...

and consequently composed mainly of

carbon Carbon () is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol C and atomic number 6. It is nonmetallic and tetravalence, tetravalent—meaning that its atoms are able to form up to four covalent bonds due to its valence shell exhibiting 4 ...

aceous material. It was discovered by

Auguste Charlois Auguste Honoré Charlois (; November 26, 1864 – March 26, 1910) was a French astronomer who discovered 99 asteroids while working at the Nice Observatory in southeastern France. Asteroid discovery His first discovery was the asteroid 267 Tirz ...

on 8 January 1894 in

Nice Nice ( ; ) is a city in and the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative city limits, with a population of nearly one million Ven Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It comprises an area of , and its popul ...

, the site of two

observatories An observatory is a location used for observing terrestrial, marine, or celestial events. Astronomy, climatology/meteorology, geophysics, oceanography and volcanology are examples of disciplines for which observatories have been constructed. Th ...

. This island is where

Tycho Brahe Tycho Brahe ( ; ; born Tyge Ottesen Brahe, ; 14 December 154624 October 1601), generally called Tycho for short, was a Danish astronomer of the Renaissance, known for his comprehensive and unprecedentedly accurate astronomical observations. He ...

built his observatory.

Satellite

A satellite, 7 km across and designated S/2003 (379) 1, was discovered on 14 August 2003 by

Jean-Luc Margot Jean-Luc Margot (born 1969) is a Belgian-born astronomer and a UCLA professor with expertise in planetary sciences and SETI. Career Margot has discovered and studied several binary asteroids with radar and optical telescopes. His discoveries ...

using the Keck II

adaptive optics Adaptive optics (AO) is a technique of precisely deforming a mirror in order to compensate for light distortion. It is used in Astronomy, astronomical telescopes and laser communication systems to remove the effects of Astronomical seeing, atmo ...

telescope at

Mauna Kea Mauna Kea (, ; abbreviation for ''Mauna a Wākea''); is a dormant Shield volcano, shield volcano on the Hawaii (island), island of Hawaii. Its peak is above sea level, making it the List of U.S. states by elevation, highest point in Hawaii a ...

. The moon orbits away in with an eccentricity of . The system is loosely bound as Huenna has a

Hill sphere The Hill sphere is a common model for the calculation of a Sphere of influence (astrodynamics), gravitational sphere of influence. It is the most commonly used model to calculate the spatial extent of gravitational influence of an astronomical ...

with a radius of about 20,000 km. HuennaOrb

References

External links

Lightcurve plot of 379 Huenna
Palmer Divide Observatory, B. D. Warner (2010)
Asteroids with Satellites
Robert Johnston, johnstonsarchive.net
Asteroid Lightcurve Database (LCDB)
query form

)
Dictionary of Minor Planet Names
Google books

– Observatoire de Genève, Raoul Behrend

– Minor Planet Center
Orbits of Binary Asteroids with Adaptive Optics
( VLT images, archived) * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Huenna 000379 Discoveries by Auguste Charlois Named minor planets 000379 000379 000379 18940108