158 Koronis is a

main-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 ...

asteroid that was discovered by Russian astronomer

Viktor Knorre Viktor Karlovich Knorre (; 4 October 1840 – 25 August 1919) was a Russian astronomer of German ethnic origin. He worked in Nikolaev, Pulkovo and Berlin and is best known for having discovered 158 Koronis and three other minor planets. Knorre's ...

on January 4, 1876, from the Berlin

observatory An observatory is a location used for observing terrestrial, marine, or celestial events. Astronomy, climatology/meteorology, geophysics, oceanography and volcanology are examples of disciplines for which observatories have been constructed. Th ...

. It was the first of his four asteroid discoveries. The meaning of the asteroid name is uncertain, but it may come from Coronis the mother of

Asclepius Asclepius (; ''Asklēpiós'' ; ) is a hero and god of medicine in ancient Religion in ancient Greece, Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology. He is the son of Apollo and Coronis (lover of Apollo), Coronis, or Arsinoe (Greek myth), Ars ...

from

Greek mythology Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the Ancient Greece, ancient Greeks, and a genre of ancient Greek folklore, today absorbed alongside Roman mythology into the broader designation of classical mythology. These stories conc ...

. Alternatively, it may come from Coronis, a nymph of the

Hyades Hyades may refer to: *Hyades (band) *Hyades (mythology) *Hyades (star cluster), an open star cluster in the constellation Taurus {{Disambiguation it:Iadi ...

sisterhood. The

Koronis family ] The Koronis or Koronian family (), also known as the Lacrimosa family, is a very large asteroid family of S-type asteroid, stony asteroids, located in the Kirkwood gap, outer region of the asteroid belt. They are thought to have been formed at l ...

is named after this asteroid. From its spectrum this is classified as an

S-type asteroid S-type (stony-type or silicaceous-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 ...

, indicating a stony composition. Photometric observations show a synodic

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 14.206 ± 0.002 hours with a brightness variation of 0.28–0.43 in

magnitude Magnitude may refer to: Mathematics *Euclidean vector, a quantity defined by both its magnitude and its direction *Magnitude (mathematics), the relative size of an object *Norm (mathematics), a term for the size or length of a vector *Order of ...

. A subsequent study at the Altimira Observatory during 2010 was in agreement with this estimate, yielding a rotation period of 14.208 ± 0.040 hours. Based on a model constructed from the lightcurve, the shape of Koronis resembles that of

243 Ida 243 Ida is an asteroid in the Koronis family of the asteroid belt. It was discovered on 29 September 1884 by Austrian astronomer Johann Palisa at Vienna Observatory and named after Ida (nurse of Zeus), a nymph from Greek mythology. Later telesc ...

, an asteroid in the same family, although it is a bit larger

A collision involving 158 Koronis 15 million years ago created a cluster of 246 objects. 158 Koronis itself retained 98.7% of the total mass. These new objects formed the Koronis(2) family. Koronis(2) is a subfamily of the much larger

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Koronis Koronis asteroids, 000158 Discoveries by Viktor Knorre Named minor planets 000158 000158 18760104