50 Virginia

Virginia (minor planet designation: 50 Virginia) is a large, very dark main belt asteroid. It was discovered by American astronomer James Ferguson on October 4, 1857, from the United States Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C. German astronomer Robert Luther discovered it independently on October 19 from Düsseldorf, and his discovery was announced first.[1]

50 Virginia
Discovery[1]
Discovered byKarl Theodor Robert Luther, James Ferguson
Discovery dateOctober 4, 1857
Designations
(50) Virginia
Pronunciation/vərˈdʒɪniə/[2]
Named after
Verginia or Virginia
Main belt
Orbital characteristics
Epoch December 31, 2006 (JD 2454100.5)
Aphelion509.817 Gm (3.408 AU)
Perihelion283.389 Gm (1.894 AU)
396.603 Gm (2.651 AU)
Eccentricity0.285
1,576.682 d (4.32 a)
210.994°
Inclination2.834°
173.773°
199.961°
Physical characteristics
Dimensions99.8 km[3]
Mass(2.31±0.70)×1018 kg[4]
Mean density
4.49 ± 1.35[4] g/cm3
14.31 h[3]
0.036[3][5]
Ch[3]
9.24[3]

    The reason for Virginia's name is not known; it may be named after Verginia, the Roman noblewoman slain by her father, but it may alternatively have been named after the American state of Virginia.[6]

    Photometric observations of this asteroid at the Organ Mesa Observatory in Las Cruces, New Mexico, during 2008 gave a light curve with a period of 14.315 ± 0.001 hours and a brightness variation of 0.19 ± 0.02 in magnitude. The shape of the light curve at the maximum was found to change with phase angle.[7]

    The orbit of 50 Virginia places it in an 11:4 mean motion resonance with the planet Jupiter. The computed Lyapunov time for this asteroid is only 10,000 years, indicating that it occupies a chaotic orbit that will change randomly over time because of gravitational perturbations of the planets.[8]

    Virginia has been studied by radar.[9]

    References
    1. "Numbered Minor Planets 1–5000", Discovery Circumstances, IAU Minor Planet center, retrieved 7 April 2013.
    2. Noah Webster (1884) A Practical Dictionary of the English Language
    3. Yeomans, Donald K., "50 Virginia", JPL Small-Body Database Browser, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, retrieved 7 April 2013.
    4. Carry, B. (December 2012), "Density of asteroids", Planetary and Space Science, 73, pp. 98–118, arXiv:1203.4336, Bibcode:2012P&SS...73...98C, doi:10.1016/j.pss.2012.03.009. See Table 1.
    5. Asteroid Data Sets Archived 2009-12-17 at the Wayback Machine
    6. Schmadel, Lutz D. (2003). Dictionary of Minor Planet Names. Springer Science & Business Media. p. 20. ISBN 978-3-540-00238-3.
    7. Pilcher, Frederick (January 2009), "Period Determinations for 33 Polyhymnia, 38 Leda, 50 Virginia, 189 Phthia, and 290 Bruna", The Minor Planet Bulletin, 36 (1), pp. 25–27, Bibcode:2009MPBu...36...25P.
    8. Šidlichovský, M. (1999), Svoren, J.; Pittich, E. M.; Rickman, H. (eds.), "Resonances and chaos in the asteroid belt", Evolution and source regions of asteroids and comets : proceedings of the 173rd colloquium of the International Astronomical Union, held in Tatranska Lomnica, Slovak Republic, August 24–28, 1998, pp. 297–308, Bibcode:1999esra.conf..297S.
    9. "Radar-Detected Asteroids and Comets". NASA/JPL Asteroid Radar Research. Retrieved 30 October 2011.

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