72 Feronia

72 Feronia is a quite large and dark main belt asteroid. It was the first asteroid discovery by C. H. F. Peters, on May 29, 1861,^[7] from Hamilton College, New York State. It was initially thought that Peters had merely seen the already known asteroid 66 Maja, but T.H. Safford showed that it was a new body. Safford named it after Feronia, a Roman fertility goddess.^[8]

72 Feronia

A three-dimensional model of 72 Feronia based on its light curve.
Discovery
Discovered by	Christian Heinrich Friedrich Peters
Discovery date	May 29, 1861
Designations
MPC designation	(72) Feronia
Pronunciation	/fɛˈroʊniə/[1]
Named after	Feronia
Minor planet category	Main belt
Adjectives	Feronian
Orbital characteristics
Epoch December 31, 2006 (JD 2454100.5)
Aphelion	2.539 AU (379.8 Gm)
Perihelion	1.993 AU (298.1 Gm)
Semi-major axis	2.266 AU (339.0 Gm)
Eccentricity	0.121
Orbital period (sidereal)	1,246.123 days (3.41 a)
Mean anomaly	146.950°
Inclination	5.417°
Longitude of ascending node	208.137°
Argument of perihelion	102.608°
Physical characteristics
Dimensions	83.95±4.02 km[2]
Mass	(9.45 ± 3.76/1.75)×1017 kg[3]
Mean density	3.045 ± 1.212/0.565 g/cm3[3]
Synodic rotation period	8.09068 h[4]
Pole ecliptic latitude	287 or 102[4]
Pole ecliptic longitude	−39 or −55[4]
Geometric albedo	0.063[5]
Spectral type	TDG[6]
Absolute magnitude (H)	8.94

This asteroid is orbiting the Sun with a period of 3.41 years, having a semimajor axis of 2.266 AU and an eccentricity of 0.121. The orbital plane is inclined by an angle of 5.4° to the plane of the ecliptic. This is a spectral type TDG asteroid with a cross-section size of 84 km. The asteroid has an estimated rotation period of 8.09 h. Hanuš et al. (2013) gives two possible solutions for the pole in ecliptic coordinates: (λ₁, β₁) = (287°, −39°) or (λ₁, β₁) = (102°, −55°).

References

1. Noah Webster (1884) A Practical Dictionary of the English Language
2. Carry, B. (December 2012), "Density of asteroids", Planetary and Space Science, vol. 73, pp. 98–118, arXiv:1203.4336, Bibcode:2012P&SS...73...98C, doi:10.1016/j.pss.2012.03.009. See Table 1.
3. Fienga, A.; Avdellidou, C.; Hanuš, J. (February 2020). "Asteroid masses obtained with INPOP planetary ephemerides". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 492 (1). doi:10.1093/mnras/stz3407.
4. Hanuš, J.; et al. (September 2013), "Sizes of main-belt asteroids by combining shape models and Keck adaptive optics observations", Icarus, 226 (1): 1045−1057, arXiv:1308.0446, Bibcode:2013Icar..226.1045H, doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2013.07.023.
5. "Asteroid Data Sets". Archived from the original on 17 December 2009. Retrieved 13 January 2007.
6. • JPL Small-Body Database Browser
7. Sheehan, William (1999), "Christian Heinrich Friedrich Peters", Biographical Memoirs, vol. 76, National Academies Press, p. 289, ISBN 0309064341.
8. Schmadel, Lutz (2003). Dictionary of minor planet names (fifth ed.). Germany: Springer. p. 22. ISBN 3-540-00238-3. Retrieved 31 December 2008.

External links

• 72 Feronia at AstDyS-2, Asteroids—Dynamic Site
  • Ephemeris · Observation prediction · Orbital info · Proper elements · Observational info
• 72 Feronia at the JPL Small-Body Database
  • Close approach · Discovery · Ephemeris · Orbit viewer · Orbit parameters · Physical parameters