35 Leukothea Explained

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35 Leukothea g
Symbol: (historical)
Discoverer:R. Luther
Discovered:April 19, 1855
Mpc Name:(35) Leukothea
Alt Names:1948 DC; ; 1976 WH
Adjective:Leukothean
Named After:Λευκοθέα Leykothea
Mp Category:Main belt
Epoch:December 31, 2006 (JD 2454100.5)
Semimajor:447.224 Gm (2.990 AU)
Perihelion:345.074 Gm (2.307 AU)
Eccentricity:0.228
Period:1887.983day
Inclination:7.938°
Asc Node:353.817°
Arg Peri:213.962°
Mean Anomaly:77.469°
Avg Speed:17.00 km/s
Mean Diameter:103.05 ± 1.2 km
Mass:(1.014 ± 0.491/0.321) kg
Density:1.769 ± 0.857/0.56 g/cm3
Escape Velocity:~ km/s
Rotation:31.900 h
Spectral Type:C
Abs Magnitude:8.5
Albedo:0.066
Single Temperature:~162 K

35 Leukothea is a large, dark asteroid from the asteroid belt. It was discovered by German astronomer Karl Theodor Robert Luther on April 19, 1855, and named after Leukothea, a sea goddess in Greek mythology. Its historical symbol was a pharos (ancient lighthouse); it is in the pipeline for Unicode 17.0 as U+1CED0 .[1] [2]

Leukothea is a C-type asteroid in the Tholen classification system, suggesting a carbonaceous composition. It is orbiting the Sun with a period of 1887.983day and has a cross-sectional size of 103.1 km.

Photometric observations of this asteroid from the Organ Mesa Observatory in Las Cruces, New Mexico during 2010 gave a light curve with a rotation period of hours and a brightness variability of in magnitude. This is consistent with previous studies in 1990 and 2008.

The computed Lyapunov time for this asteroid is 20,000 years, indicating that it occupies a chaotic orbit that will change randomly over time because of gravitational perturbations of the planets.

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Unicode request for historical asteroid symbols . Bala . Gavin Jared . Miller . Kirk . 18 September 2023 . unicode.org . Unicode . 26 September 2023 .
  2. Web site: Proposed New Characters: The Pipeline . Unicode . unicode.org . The Unicode Consortium . 6 November 2023 .