43 Ariadne facts for kids
| Discovery | |
|---|---|
| Discovered by | N. R. Pogson |
| Discovery date | April 15, 1857 |
| Designations | |
| none | |
| Main belt (Flora family) | |
| Orbital characteristics | |
| Epoch November 26, 2005 (JD 2453700.5) | |
| Aphelion | 384.954 Gm (2.573 AU) |
| Perihelion | 274.339 Gm (1.834 AU) |
| 329.646 Gm (2.204 AU) | |
| Eccentricity | 0.168 |
| 1194.766 d (3.27 a) | |
|
Average orbital speed
|
19.92 km/s |
| 101.582° | |
| Inclination | 3.464° |
| 264.937° | |
| 15.948° | |
| Physical characteristics | |
| Dimensions | 95×60×50 km |
| Mass | ~4.0×1017 kg (estimate) |
|
Mean density
|
~2.7 g/cm³ (estimate) |
| ~0.012 m/s² (estimate) | |
| ~0.034 km/s (estimate) | |
| 0.2401 d | |
| Albedo | 0.274 (geometric) |
| Temperature | ~178 K max: 275K (+2° C) |
|
Spectral type
|
S-type asteroid |
| 8.78 to 13.29 | |
| 7.93 | |
| 0.11" to 0.025" | |
43 Ariadne is a fairly big and bright main belt asteroid. It is the second-biggest member of the Flora asteroid family. It was found by N. R. Pogson on April 15, 1857 and named after the Greek heroine Ariadne.
Characteristics
Ariadne is very stretched out (almost twice as long as its smallest shape). It is a retrograde rotator, although its pole points almost parallel to the ecliptic towards ecliptic coordinates (β, λ) = (-15°, 235°) with a 10° uncertainty[2]. This gives an axial tilt of about 105°.
Trivia
- For reasons unknown, "Asteroid 43 Ariadne" was included in a list of names of supporters of the NASA spacecraft Stardust that was stored on a microchip within the spacecraft.
- The maximum apparent size of Ariadne is equal to the maximum apparent size of Pluto.
-
M. Kaasalainen, J. Torppa & J. Piironen Models of Twenty Asteroids from Photometric Data, Icarus, Vol. 159, p. 369 (2002).
-
P. Tanga et al. Asteroid observations with the Hubble Space Telescope, Astronomy & Astrophysics, Vol. 401, p. 733 (2003).
-
G. A. Krasinsky et al. Hidden Mass in the Asteroid Belt, Icarus, Vol. 158, p. 98 (2002).
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43 Ariadne Facts for Kids. Kiddle Encyclopedia.