1171 Rusthawelia, provisional designation , is a large and dark
background asteroid
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 ...
, approximately in diameter, located in the outer regions of 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 was discovered on 3 October 1930, by 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 ...
at the
Royal Observatory of Belgium
The Royal Observatory of Belgium (; ; ) has been situated in the Uccle municipality of Brussels since 1890. It is part of the institutions of the Belgian Federal Science Policy Office (BELSPO).
The Royal Observatory was first established in S ...
in Uccle, and was an unnoticed rediscovery of a
lost minor planet
Lost or LOST may refer to getting lost, or to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Television
* ''Lost'' (TV series), a 2004 American drama series about people who become stranded on a mysterious island
* ''Lost'' (2001 TV series), a short-lived Ameri ...
then known as "Adelaide". As the asteroid was already named for Georgian poet
Shota Rustaveli
Shota Rustaveli ( ka, შოთა რუსთაველი, – after c. 1220), mononymously known simply as Rustaveli, was a medieval Georgian poet. He is considered to be the pre-eminent poet of the Georgian Golden Age and one of the g ...
when the rediscovery was realized, its former designation was given to another asteroid instead, which is now known as 525 Adelaide. ''Rusthawelia'' is a primitive
P-type asteroid
P-type (primitive-type) asteroids have low albedo and a featureless reddish spectrum. It has been suggested that they have a composition of organic-rich silicates, carbon and anhydrous silicates, possibly with water ice in their interior. P-type ...
and has a
rotation period
In astronomy, the rotation period or spin period of a celestial object (e.g., star, planet, moon, asteroid) has two definitions. The first one corresponds to the '' sidereal rotation period'' (or ''sidereal day''), i.e., the time that the objec ...
of 11 hours.
Unnoticed rediscovery of lost asteroid
When Arend discovered ''Rusthawelia'' in 1930, it was not realized that he rediscovered the long-
lost asteroid
Lost or LOST may refer to getting lost, or to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Television
* ''Lost'' (TV series), a 2004 American drama series about people who become stranded on a mysterious island
* ''Lost'' (2001 TV series), a short-lived Ameri ...
"525 Adelaide". It was already discovered 26 years earlier as by German astronomer
Max Wolf
Maximilian Franz Joseph Cornelius Wolf (21 June 1863 – 3 October 1932) was a German astronomer and a pioneer in the field of astrophotography. He was the chairman of astronomy at the University of Heidelberg and director of the Heidelberg-K ...
at
Heidelberg Observatory
Heidelberg (; ; ) is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, fifth-largest city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, and with a population of about 163,000, of which roughly a quarter consists of studen ...
in March 1904, who observed it for a short time during the discovery opposition before it became lost. Only decades later, in 1958, it was shown by French astronomer
André Patry
André Patry (22 November 1902 – 20 June 1960) was a French astronomer and discoverer of 9 minor planets in the late 1930s.
Patry was orphaned at a young age, and began working as a 17-year-old at the Nice Observatory in southeastern France. H ...
that both asteroid's discovered by Wolf and Arend were one and the same (). It was then decided that this asteroid retains the number–name designation "1171 Rusthawelia", while
525 Adelaide
525 Adelaide is an S-type asteroid belonging to the Flora family in the Main Belt. It was discovered 21 October 1908 by Joel Hastings Metcalf.
Previously, the object A904 EB, discovered 14 March 1904 by Max Wolf, had been named 525 Adelaide but ...
was vacated and given to another asteroid (which was the object , discovered by
Joel Hastings Metcalf
Joel Hastings Metcalf (January 4, 1866 – February 23, 1925) was an American astronomer, humanitarian and Minister (Christianity), minister.
Reverend Metcalf graduated from Harvard Divinity School in 1892. He served as a Unitarianism, Unitarian ...
).
Another confusion occurred in 1929, one year before Arend's discovery, when American astronomer Anne Sewell Young thought to have found long-lost "Adelaide", when in fact she mistook the asteroid for comet
31P/Schwassmann–Wachmann
31P/Schwassmann–Wachmann, also known as Schwassmann–Wachmann 2, is a periodic comet in the Solar System. It was discovered on January 17, 1929, at an apparent magnitude of 11.Cometography Home Page The comet has been seen at every apparition. ...
that had a very similar
orbital eccentricity
In astrodynamics, the orbital eccentricity of an astronomical object is a dimensionless parameter that determines the amount by which its orbit around another body deviates from a perfect circle. A value of 0 is a circular orbit, values be ...
.
Orbit and classification
''Rusthawelia'' is a non-
family
Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...