704 Interamnia facts for kids
Comparison of Interamnia and Ceres
|
|
| Discovery | |
|---|---|
| Discovered by | Vincenzo Cerulli |
| Discovery date | October 2, 1910 |
| Designations | |
| 1910 KU; 1952 MW | |
| Main belt | |
| Orbital characteristics | |
| Epoch October 22, 2004 (JD 2453300.5) | |
| Aphelion | 526.464 Gm (3.519 AU) |
| Perihelion | 389.910 Gm (2.606 AU) |
| 458.187 Gm (3.063 AU) | |
| Eccentricity | 0.149 |
| 1957.827 d (5.36 a) | |
|
Average orbital speed
|
16.92 km/s |
| 204.093° | |
| Inclination | 17.285° |
| 280.422° | |
| 95.654° | |
| Physical characteristics | |
| Dimensions | 350.4×303.7 km 1 |
| Mass | 5.7×1019 kg |
|
Mean density
|
3.6 g/cm³ |
| 0.186 m/s² | |
| 242.9 m/s | |
| 0.364 d 2 | |
| Albedo | 0.075 |
| Temperature | ~160 K |
|
Spectral type
|
F |
| 5.94 | |
704 Interamnia is a giant asteroid that orbits the Sun. It's one of the biggest objects in the main asteroid belt. Scientists believe it is about 350 kilometers wide. This makes it the fifth heaviest asteroid known, after Ceres, Vesta, Pallas, and Hygiea. It is thought to make up about 2% of the total mass of the entire asteroid belt.
Interamnia was discovered on October 2, 1910, by an astronomer named Vincenzo Cerulli. He named it after the Latin name for Teramo, a city in Italy. This is where Cerulli worked when he found the asteroid.
Contents
What Makes Interamnia Special?
Even though Interamnia is one of the largest asteroids, scientists haven't studied it as much as the "big four" (Ceres, Vesta, Pallas, and Hygiea). It is the biggest asteroid of its type, known as an F-type asteroid.
Inside Interamnia
Scientists believe Interamnia is a very solid object. It likely has no empty spaces or traces of water inside. This suggests that Interamnia is strong enough to have survived many collisions. These collisions have happened in the asteroid belt since the Solar System first formed.
How Bright Is It?
Interamnia has a very dark surface. It is also quite far from the Sun. Because of this, you can't see it with regular 10x50 binoculars.
- At its brightest, Interamnia's brightness is around +11.0. This is much dimmer than Vesta, Ceres, or Pallas.
- Even when it's closest to the Sun, its brightness is only about +9.9. This is still a lot dimmer than Vesta.
Interamnia's Orbit
Interamnia's path around the Sun is a bit more stretched out than Hygiea's orbit. However, Hygiea's orbit is more tilted and takes less time to complete.
- Interamnia's closest point to the Sun (called perihelion) is on the opposite side from where the "big four" asteroids have their perihelion.
- This means that when Interamnia is at its closest to the Sun, it can actually be nearer than Ceres and Pallas are at the same point in their orbits.
- Scientists believe it's unlikely that Interamnia will crash into Pallas or Ceres. Their orbits are usually too far apart when they cross paths.
Images for kids
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Observations of 704 Interamnia carried out at the Observatory of Teramo (founded by the discoverer of the asteroid, Vincenzo Cerulli) for the 101st anniversary since its discovery. The animation shows Interamnia's path over three hours.
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One of the first photographic plates of 704 Interamnia. The image was taken in Oct. 1910; the path of the asteroid is shown in the zoom.
See also
In Spanish: (704) Interamnia para niños
