878 Mildred
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878 Mildred is a
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 ...
in the
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 ...
orbiting the
Sun The Sun is the star at the centre of the Solar System. It is a massive, nearly perfect sphere of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core, radiating the energy from its surface mainly as visible light a ...
. It is the lowest numbered, and thus the namesake, of the Mildred family of asteroids, a subgroup of the
Nysa family The Nysa family (adj. ''Nysian''; FIN: 405) is part of the Nysa–Polana complex, the largest cluster of asteroid families in the asteroid belt. It is located in the inner region of the asteroid belt, orbiting the Sun between 2.41 and 2.5  ...
. The Mildred subgroup, and by extension 878 Mildred itself, is thought to have been formed by a recent fragmentation event from a larger asteroid.


Discovery

878 Mildred was originally discovered in 1916 using the 1.5 m Hale Telescope at the
Mount Wilson Observatory The Mount Wilson Observatory (MWO) is an Observatory#Astronomical observatories, astronomical observatory in Los Angeles County, California, United States. The MWO is located on Mount Wilson (California), Mount Wilson, a peak in the San Gabrie ...
, but was subsequently lost until it was again observed on single nights in 1985 and 1991 (a
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 ...
). Initially only two observations of the asteroid were taken on 1916-09-06 which does not allow for an accurate orbital determination, however interest in the object prompted further investigation and more measurements were taken in late September and October. The asteroid was re-discovered in 1991 by Gareth V. Williams. It is named after Mildred Shapley Matthews.


Physical properties

By comparing the asteroid's perceived brightness and the then computed distance from the Sun they arrived at an absolute visual magnitude of 14.3, which if one assumes Mars-like albedo gives an approximate diameter of 3 to 5 kilometers.


References


External links


Minor Planet Center Database entry on (878) Mildred
* * 000878 Discoveries by Seth Nicholson Discoveries by Harlow Shapley Named minor planets 19160906 00878 {{S-beltasteroid-stub