124 Alkeste

124 Alkeste
Discovery
Discovered by Christian Heinrich Friedrich Peters
Discovery date 23 August 1872
Designations
MPC designation (124) Alkeste
Pronunciation /ælˈkɛstiː/
Named after
 Alcestis
 
Main belt
Orbital characteristics[1]
Epoch 31 July 2016 (JD 2457600.5)
Uncertainty parameter 0
Observation arc 143.65 yr (52468 d)
Aphelion 2.8288 AU (423.18 Gm)
Perihelion 2.43166 AU (363.771 Gm)
2.63022 AU (393.475 Gm)
Eccentricity 0.075491
4.27 yr (1558.1 d)
18.34 km/s
343.779°
0° 13m 51.816s / day
Inclination 2.9573°
187.991°
61.413°
Earth MOID 1.41927 AU (212.320 Gm)
Jupiter MOID 2.17851 AU (325.900 Gm)
TJupiter 3.394
Physical characteristics
Dimensions 76.36±1.7 km
Mass 4.7×1017 kg
Equatorial surface gravity
 0.0214 m/s²
Equatorial escape velocity
 0.0404 km/s
9.921 h (0.4134 d)
0.1728±0.008
Temperature ~172 K
S
8.11,[1] 8.09[2]

    124 Alkeste is a large main-belt asteroid. It is an S-type (silicaceous) in composition. C.H.F. Peters discovered the asteroid on August 23, 1872, from the observatory at Hamilton College, New York State. The name was chosen by Adelinde Weiss, wife of the astronomer Edmund Weiss, and refers to Alcestis, a woman in Greek mythology.[3]

    The Occult plot of the 2003 observation

    A 20 chord stellar occultation by Alkeste was observed when the asteroid passed in front of the third magnitude star Beta Virginis on June 24, 2003. The event was visible from Australia and New Zealand.[4]

    The asteroid has been observed in 3 more stellar occultation events.[5]

    Photometric observations of this asteroid in 2016 produced lightcurves indicating a rotation period of 9.9 hours with an amplitude variation of 0.18 in magnitude. This result matched previous determinations of the spin rate. The lightcurve was found to vary over the observation period as the viewing angle changed, suggesting the shadowing of topographic features.[6]

    References

    1. 1 2 Yeomans, Donald K., "124 Alkeste", JPL Small-Body Database Browser, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, retrieved 12 May 2016.
    2. ↑ Warner, Brian D. (December 2007), "Initial Results of a Dedicated H-G Project", The Minor Planet Bulletin, 34, pp. 113–119, Bibcode:2007MPBu...34..113W.
    3. ↑ Schmadel, Lutz D. (2003). Dictionary of Minor Planet Names. Springer Science & Business Media. p. 27. ISBN 978-3-540-00238-3.
    4. ↑ Occultation by (124) Alkeste - 2003 Jun 24, Occultation Section, Royal Astronomical Society of New Zealand, May 23, 2003, retrieved 2018-01-19.
    5. ↑ "Asteroid Data Sets". sbn.psi.edu. Retrieved 2018-05-19.
    6. ↑ Pilcher, Frederick (October 2016), "Three Asteroids with Changing Lightcurves: 124 Alkeste, 465 Alekto, and 569 Misa", The Minor Planet Bulletin, 43 (4): 296–299, Bibcode:2016MPBu...43..296P.


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