172 Baucis is a large
main belt asteroid
An asteroid is a minor planet—an object larger than a meteoroid that is neither a planet nor an identified comet—that orbits within the Solar System#Inner Solar System, inner Solar System or is co-orbital with Jupiter (Trojan asteroids). As ...
that was discovered by French astronomer
Alphonse Borrelly on February 5, 1877, and named after a fictional character in the
Greek legend of
Baucis and Philemon. The adjectival form of the name is ''Baucidian.'' It is classified as an
S-type asteroid based upon its spectrum.
Photometric observations of this asteroid from the southern hemisphere during 2003 gave a
light curve
In astronomy, a light curve is a graph (discrete mathematics), graph of the Radiance, light intensity of a celestial object or region as a function of time, typically with the magnitude (astronomy), magnitude of light received on the ''y''-axis ...
that indicated a slow 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 27.417 ± 0.013 hours and a brightness variation of 0.25 in
magnitude.
study of this asteroid reveals anomalous properties that suggests the
regolith consists of a mixture of low and high
albedo
Albedo ( ; ) is the fraction of sunlight that is Diffuse reflection, diffusely reflected by a body. It is measured on a scale from 0 (corresponding to a black body that absorbs all incident radiation) to 1 (corresponding to a body that reflects ...
material. This may have been caused by fragmentation of an asteroid
substrate with the spectral properties of CO3/CV3
carbonaceous chondrites.
References
External links
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Background asteroids
Baucis
Baucis
S-type asteroids (Tholen)
L-type asteroids (SMASS)
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