Main-belt asteroid
103 Hera is a moderately large main-belt asteroid with an orbital period of 4.44 years. It was discovered by Canadian-American astronomer James Craig Watson on September 7, 1868,[ 6] and named after Hera , queen and fifth in power of the Olympian gods in Greek mythology . This is a stony S-type asteroid [ 5] with a silicate surface composition.
Photometric observations made in 2010 at the Organ Mesa Observatory at Las Cruces, New Mexico , and the Hunters Hill Observatory at Ngunnawal, Australian Capital Territory , give a synodic rotation period of 23.740± 0.001 h . The bimodal light curve shows a maximum brightness variation of 0.45 ± 0.03 in magnitude .[ 4]
Measurements made with the IRAS observatory give a diameter of 91.58± 4.14 km and a geometric albedo of 0.19± 0.02 . By comparison, the MIPS photometer on the Spitzer Space Telescope gives a diameter of 88.30± 8.51 km and a geometric albedo of 0.20± 0.04 . When the asteroid was observed occulting a star, the chords showed a diameter of 89.1± 1.1 km .[ 7]
References
^ a b c d e f g h JPL Small-Body Database Browser , JPL, retrieved 30 October 2020
^ "Hera" . Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press . (Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
^ a b Yeomans, Donald K., "103 Hera" , JPL Small-Body Database Browser , NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory , retrieved 12 May 2016 .
^ a b Pilcher, Frederick (January 2011), "Rotation Period Determination for 103 Hera", The Minor Planet Bulletin , 38 (1): 32, Bibcode :2011MPBu...38...32P .
^ a b DeMeo, Francesca E.; et al. (2011), "An extension of the Bus asteroid taxonomy into the near-infrared" (PDF) , Icarus , 202 (1): 160– 180, Bibcode :2009Icar..202..160D , doi :10.1016/j.icarus.2009.02.005 , archived from the original (PDF) on 17 March 2014, retrieved 22 March 2013 . See appendix A.
^ "Numbered Minor Planets 1–5000" , Discovery Circumstances , IAU Minor Planet center, retrieved 7 April 2013 .
^ Ryan, Erin Lee; et al. (April 2012), "The Kilometer-Sized Main Belt Asteroid Population as Revealed by Spitzer", arXiv :1204.1116 [astro-ph.EP ]
External links