172 Baucis is a large main belt asteroid that was discovered by French astronomer Alphonse Borrelly on February 5, 1877, and named after a fictional character in the Greek legend of Baucis and Philemon. The adjectival form of the name is Baucidian. It is classified as an S-type asteroid based upon its spectrum.
 Orbital diagram | |
| Discovery | |
|---|---|
| Discovered by | A. Borrelly |
| Discovery date | 5 February 1877 |
| Designations | |
| (172) Baucis | |
| Pronunciation | /ˈbɔːsɪs/[1] |
Named after | Baucis |
| A877 CA; 1921 EE | |
| Main belt | |
| Orbital characteristics[2] | |
| Epoch 31 July 2016 (JD 2457600.5) | |
| Uncertainty parameter 0 | |
| Observation arc | 133.62 yr (48806 d) |
| Aphelion | 2.6525 AU (396.81 Gm) |
| Perihelion | 2.1073 AU (315.25 Gm) |
| 2.3799 AU (356.03 Gm) | |
| Eccentricity | 0.11454 |
| 3.67 yr (1341.0 d) | |
| 175.49° | |
| 0° 16m 6.42s / day | |
| Inclination | 10.028° |
| 331.98° | |
| 359.20° | |
| Earth MOID | 1.09593 AU (163.949 Gm) |
| Jupiter MOID | 2.67257 AU (399.811 Gm) |
| TJupiter | 3.510 |
| Physical characteristics | |
| 31.215±0.6 km | |
| 27.417 h (1.1424 d)[2][3] | |
| 0.1382±0.006 | |
| S | |
| 8.79 | |
Photometric observations of this asteroid from the southern hemisphere during 2003 gave a light curve that indicated a slow synodic rotation period of 27.417 ± 0.013 hours and a brightness variation of 0.25 in magnitude.[3]
Polarimetric study of this asteroid reveals anomalous properties that suggests the regolith consists of a mixture of low and high albedo material. This may have been caused by fragmentation of an asteroid substrate with the spectral properties of CO3/CV3 carbonaceous chondrites.[4]
References
edit- ^ Noah Webster (1884) A Practical Dictionary of the English Language
- ^ a b Yeomans, Donald K., "172 Baucis", JPL Small-Body Database Browser, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, retrieved 6 May 2016.
- ^ a b Bembrick, C. S.; et al. (September 2004), "172 Baucis - a slow rotator", The Minor Planet Bulletin, vol. 31, no. 3, pp. 51–52, Bibcode:2004MPBu...31...51B.
- ^ Gil-Hutton, R.; et al. (April 2008), "New cases of unusual polarimetric behavior in asteroids", Astronomy and Astrophysics, vol. 482, no. 1, pp. 309–314, Bibcode:2008A&A...482..309G, doi:10.1051/0004-6361:20078965.
External links
edit- 172 Baucis at AstDyS-2, Asteroids—Dynamic Site
- 172 Baucis at the JPL Small-Body Database
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