274301 Wikipedia, provisional designation , is a Vestian asteroid orbiting in the inner region 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, c ...

, approximately in diameter. It was discovered on 25 August 2008 by astronomers at the

Andrushivka Astronomical Observatory Andrushivka Astronomical Observatory ( uk, italic=yes, Андрушівська астрономічна обсерваторія) is a private astronomical observatory in the town suburbs of Andrushivka, Zhytomyr Oblast, Ukraine. It was establi ...

in northern Ukraine. The asteroid was named after the online encyclopedia

Wikipedia Wikipedia is a multilingual free online encyclopedia written and maintained by a community of volunteers, known as Wikipedians, through open collaboration and using a wiki-based editing system. Wikipedia is the largest and most-read refer ...

in January 2013.

Etymology

The decision of the Committee for Small Body Nomenclature to assign the name "Wikipedia" to the asteroid was published in the Minor Planet Circulars on 27 January 2013 (). The asteroid received the number . The name was proposed by Andriy Makukha, a board member of

Wikimedia Ukraine Wikimedia Ukraine is the regional chapter of the Wikimedia Foundation in Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to th ...

. It was submitted to the Committee by the owner of the observatory, Yuri Ivashchenko. It reads:

Characteristics

Wikipedia is a member of the

Vesta family The Vesta family (adj. ''Vestian''; ) is a family of asteroids. The cratering family is located in the inner asteroid belt in the vicinity of its namesake and principal body, 4 Vesta. It is one of the largest asteroid families with more than ...

(), one of the most numerous asteroid families in the

. It is located in the proximity of 21791 Mattweegman, one of the family's principal members. Vestian asteroids have a composition akin to cumulate eucrites (

HED meteorite HED meteorites are a clan (subgroup) of achondrite meteorites. HED stands for "howardite– eucrite–diogenite". These achondrites came from a differentiated parent body and experienced extensive igneous processing not much different from the mag ...

s). They are thought to have originated deep within Vesta's crust, possibly from the Rheasilvia crater, a large

impact crater An impact crater is a circular depression in the surface of a solid astronomical object formed by the hypervelocity impact of a smaller object. In contrast to volcanic craters, which result from explosion or internal collapse, impact crater ...

on its southern hemisphere which formed as the result of a subcatastrophic collision. Wikipedia orbits the Sun in the

inner Interior may refer to: Arts and media * ''Interior'' (Degas) (also known as ''The Rape''), painting by Edgar Degas * ''Interior'' (play), 1895 play by Belgian playwright Maurice Maeterlinck * ''The Interior'' (novel), by Lisa See * Interior de ...

asteroid belt at a distance of once every 3 years and 8 months (1,342 days; semi-major axis of 2.38 AU). 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-Centre (geometry), center, in geometry * Eccentricity (g ...

of 0.15 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 reference plane and the orbital plane or axis of direction of the orbiting object. For a satellite orbiting the Eart ...

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 agains ...

. The asteroid'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 ...

begins almost 11 years prior to its official discovery, with its first observation being by the ODAS survey in September 1997.

Observation

The asteroid now named Wikipedia was discovered by

astronomer An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses their studies on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. They observe astronomical objects such as stars, planets, moons, comets and galaxies – in either ...

s from the

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

, the country's only privately owned observatory, which has discovered nearly 90 asteroids since 2003. It was first observed by the Andrushivka team on 25 August 2008 at 22:47 UTC. It was also observed on the next night and it received provisional designation . After it was also observed on 6 September by the Andrushivka team, the orbit of the asteroid was calculated accurately. It was shown that the asteroid was the same as and previously spotted by observatories

Caussols Caussols (; oc, Caussòus; it, Caussole) is a commune in the Alpes-Maritimes department in southeastern France. It is known for the CERGA Observatory on the Calern plateau. Demographics See also *Communes of the Alpes-Maritimes departmen ...

- ODAS (France),

Mount Lemmon Survey Mount Lemmon Survey (MLS) is a part of the Catalina Sky Survey with observatory code G96. MLS uses a cassegrain reflector telescope (with 10560x10560-pixel camera at the f/1.6 prime focus, for a five square degree field of view) operated by ...

and

Steward Observatory Steward Observatory is the research arm of the Department of Astronomy at the University of Arizona (UArizona). Its offices are located on the UArizona campus in Tucson, Arizona (US). Established in 1916, the first telescope and building were f ...

(both in Arizona, U.S.).

References

External links

Discovery Circumstances: Numbered Minor Planets (270001)-(275000)
Minor Planet Center
''Dictionary of Minor Planet Names''
Google Books * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Wikipedia 274301 274301 Named minor planets 274301 Wikipedia 20080825