1145 Robelmonte, provisional designation , is a Vestian
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.
...
from the inner regions of the
asteroid belt, approximately 23 kilometers in diameter.
It was discovered on 3 February 1929, by Belgian astronomer
Eugène Delporte at the
Royal Observatory of Belgium in Uccle.
Through a glitch in the naming process, the asteroid received the name "Robelmonte" instead of "Mimi" as originally intended by the discoverer.
Orbit and classification
''Robelmonte'' 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 ...
(),
the main-belt's second-largest
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 ...
by number of members.
Vestian asteroids have a composition akin to the
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 magm ...
s and are thought to have originated deep within
4 Vesta
Vesta (minor-planet designation: 4 Vesta) is one of the largest objects in the asteroid belt, with a mean diameter of . It was discovered by the German astronomer Heinrich Wilhelm Matthias Olbers on 29 March 1807 and is named after Vesta, the ...
's crust, possibly from
Rheasilvia, a large
impact crater on its southern hemisphere near the South pole, formed as a result of a subcatastrophic collision.
Vesta is the main belt's
second-largest and
second-most-massive body after
Ceres
Ceres most commonly refers to:
* Ceres (dwarf planet), the largest asteroid
* Ceres (mythology), the Roman goddess of agriculture
Ceres may also refer to:
Places
Brazil
* Ceres, Goiás, Brazil
* Ceres Microregion, in north-central Goiás st ...
.
''Robelmonte'' 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 ...
main-belt at a distance of 2.1–2.7
AU once every 3 years and 9 months (1,378 days). Its orbit has an
eccentricity of 0.12 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 Plane of reference, reference plane and the orbital plane or Axis of rotation, axis of direction of the orbiting object ...
of 6
° with respect to the
ecliptic.
The asteroid was first identified as at
Simeiz Observatory in September 1915. Its
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 at
Algiers Observatory in August 1930, more than a year after its official discovery observation at Uccle.
Physical characteristics
''Robelmonte'' is an assumed stony
S-type asteroid
S-type asteroids are asteroids with a spectral type that is indicative of a siliceous (i.e. stony) mineralogical composition, hence the name. They have relatively high density. Approximately 17% of asteroids are of this type, making it the second ...
,
despite its relatively low albedo.
Rotation period
In March 2016, the best-rated rotational
lightcurve of ''Robelmonte'' was obtained from photometric observations by the Spanish amateur astronomer group OBAS (Observadores de Asteroides – Asteroid Observers). Lightcurve analysis gave a
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 8.002 hours with a brightness variation of 0.13
magnitude ().
Previous observations gave a divergent period of 7.582, 9.01 and 21 hours, respectively ().
Diameter and albedo
According to the surveys carried out by the Japanese
Akari satellite and the
NEOWISE mission of NASA's
Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer
Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE, observatory code C51, Explorer 92 and SMEX-6) is a NASA infrared astronomy space telescope in the Explorers Program. It was launched in December 2009, and placed in hibernation mode in February 2011, ...
, ''Robelmonte'' measures between 18.85 and 24.757 kilometers in diameter and its surface has an
albedo
Albedo (; ) is the measure of the diffuse reflection of sunlight, solar radiation out of the total solar radiation and measured on a scale from 0, corresponding to a black body that absorbs all incident radiation, to 1, corresponding to a body ...
between 0.1046 and 0.16.
The ''Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link'' derives a low albedo of 0.0994 and a diameter of 23.16 kilometers based on an
absolute magnitude
Absolute magnitude () is a measure of the luminosity of a celestial object on an inverse Logarithmic scale, logarithmic Magnitude (astronomy), astronomical magnitude scale. An object's absolute magnitude is defined to be equal to the apparent mag ...
of 11.3.
Naming
This
minor planet
According to the International Astronomical Union (IAU), a minor planet is an astronomical object in direct orbit around the Sun that is exclusively classified as neither a planet nor a comet. Before 2006, the IAU officially used the term ''minor ...
was named after
Robelmont
Robelmont (Gaumais: ''Roubiémont'') is a village of Wallonia and a district of the municipality of Meix-devant-Virton, located in the province of Luxembourg, Belgium.
The asteroid 1145 Robelmonte is named after the village, in honour of the ast ...
, the birthplace of Belgian astronomer
Sylvain Arend
Sylvain Julien Victor Arend (6 August 1902 – 18 February 1992) was a Belgian astronomer born in Robelmont, Luxembourg province, Belgium. His main interest was astrometry.
Together with Georges Roland, he discovered the bright comet C/1956 R ...
(Robelmonte is the feminine form). Through an error, the names intended for
1127 Mimi (wife of Delporte) and 1145 Robelmonte (birthplace of Arend) had been switched, and each name had been proposed by the discoverer of the other asteroid. The official naming citation was mentioned in ''
The Names of the Minor Planets'' by
Paul Herget in 1955 ().
References
External links
Asteroid Lightcurve Database (LCDB) query form
)
Dictionary of Minor Planet Names Google books
– Observatoire de Genève, Raoul Behrend
– Minor Planet Center
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Robelmonte
001145
Discoveries by Eugène Joseph Delporte
Named minor planets
19290203