Eos (
minor planet designation
A formal minor-planet designation is, in its final form, a number–name combination given to a minor planet (asteroid, centaur, trans-Neptunian object and dwarf planet but not comet). Such designation always features a leading number (catalog or ...
: 221 Eos) is a large
main-belt 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.
...
that was discovered by Austrian astronomer
Johann Palisa
Johann Palisa (6 December 1848 – 2 May 1925) was an Austrian astronomer, born in Troppau, Austrian Silesia, now Czech Republic. He was a prolific discoverer of asteroids, discovering 122 in all, from 136 Austria in 1874 to 1073 Gel ...
on January 18, 1882, in
Vienna. In 1884, it was named after
Eos, the
Greek goddess of the dawn, to honour the opening of a new
observatory
An observatory is a location used for observing terrestrial, marine, or celestial events. Astronomy, climatology/meteorology, geophysical, oceanography and volcanology are examples of disciplines for which observatories have been constructed. His ...
that was hoped to bring about a new dawn for Viennese astronomy.
[
The asteroid is orbiting the Sun with a semimajor axis of , a period of 5.22 years, and an eccentricity of 0.1. The orbital plane is inclined by 10.9° to the plane of the ecliptic. It has a mean cross-section of 104 km,]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 10.4 hours. Based upon its spectral characteristics, this object is classified as a K-type asteroid K-type asteroids are relatively uncommon asteroids with a moderately reddish spectrum shortwards of 0.75 μm, and a slight bluish trend longwards of this. They have a low albedo. Their spectrum resembles that of CV and CO meteorites. A larger K ty ...
. The orbital properties show it to be a member of the extensive Eos asteroid family, which is named after it.[
]
References
External links
The Asteroid Orbital Elements DatabaseAsteroid Lightcurve Data File
*
*
Eos asteroids
Eos
Eos
S-type asteroids (Tholen)
Eos
K-type asteroids (SMASS)
18820118
{{beltasteroid-stub