PROFILPELAJAR.COM

259 Aletheia
Discovery
Discovered by	C. H. F. Peters
Discovery site	Litchfield Obs., Clinton
Discovery date	28 June 1886
Designations
MPC designation	(259) Aletheia
Pronunciation	/æləˈθiːə/
Named after	Aletheia
Alternative designations	A886 MA, 1947 LD
Minor planet category	main-belt
Adjectives	Aletheian
Symbol
Orbital characteristics
	Epoch 27 June 2015 (JD 2457200.5)
	Uncertainty parameter 0
Observation arc	117.00 yr (42,736 days)
Aphelion	3.5353 AU
Perihelion	2.7347 AU
Semi-major axis	3.1350 AU
Eccentricity	0.1276
Orbital period (sidereal)	5.55 yr (2027.5 days)
Mean anomaly	71.260°
Inclination	10.813°
Longitude of ascending node	86.864°
Argument of perihelion	168.07°
Earth MOID	1.7207 AU
Physical characteristics
Dimensions	174.32±1.05 km; 190.05±6.82 km
Mass	(7.79±0.43)×1018 kg
Mean density	2.16 ± 0.26 g/cm3
Synodic rotation period	8.143 h
Geometric albedo	0.0436
Spectral type	B–V = 0.698; U–B = 0.311; CP (Tholen), X (SMASS)
Absolute magnitude (H)	7.76

259 Aletheia is a very large main-belt asteroid that was discovered by German–American astronomer Christian Peters on June 28, 1886, at Litchfield Observatory, Clinton, New York. The dark and heterogeneously composed X-type (Tholen: C P-type) asteroid contains primitive carbonaceous materials, responsible for its low albedo of 0.04. Aletheia measures about 185 kilometers in diameter and belongs to the largest asteroids of the main-belt. It has a semi-major axis of 3.1 AU and an orbit inclined by 11 degrees with a period of 5.55 years.^[1]

Richard P. Binzel and Schelte Bus further added to the knowledge about this asteroid in a lightwave survey published in 2003. This project was known as Small Main-belt Asteroid Spectroscopic Survey, Phase II or SMASSII, which built on a previous survey of the main-belt asteroids. The visible-wavelength (0.435-0.925 micrometre) spectra data was gathered between August 1993 and March 1999.^[6]^[7]

Lightcurve data has also been recorded by observers at the Antelope Hill Observatory, which has been designated as an official observatory by the Minor Planet Center.^[8]

It is named after the Greek goddess of truth, Aletheia, the daughter of Zeus and one of the nurses of Apollo.^[3]

References

^ ^a ^b ^c "JPL Small-Body Database Browser: 259 Aletheia" (2015-09-15 last obs.). Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Retrieved 14 October 2015.
^ 'Alethia' in Noah Webster (1884) A Practical Dictionary of the English Language, with -eia pronounced as in 'Hygeia', 'apatheia', etc.
^ ^a ^b Schmadel, Lutz D. (2003). Dictionary of Minor Planet Names – (259) Aletheia. Springer Berlin Heidelberg. p. 38. doi:10.1007/978-3-540-29925-7_260. ISBN 978-3-540-29925-7.
^ "Small-Body Database Lookup".
^ ^a ^b ^c Carry, B. (December 2012), "Density of asteroids", Planetary and Space Science, 73 (1): 98–118, arXiv:1203.4336, Bibcode:2012P&SS...73...98C, doi:10.1016/j.pss.2012.03.009, S2CID 119226456. See Table 1.
^ Bus, S., Binzel, R. P. Small Main-belt Asteroid Spectroscopic Survey, Phase II. EAR-A-I0028-4-SBN0001/SMASSII-V1.0. NASA Planetary Data System, 2003.
^ JPL Small-Body Database Browser
^ "Lightcurve Results". Archived from the original on 25 July 2011. Retrieved 9 March 2008.