729 Watsonia

729 Watsonia
Discovery
Discovered by Joel Hastings Metcalf
Discovery site Winchester, Massachusetts
Discovery date 9 February 1912
Designations
MPC designation (729) Watsonia
1912 OD
Orbital characteristics[1]
Epoch 31 July 2016 (JD 2457600.5)
Uncertainty parameter 0
Observation arc 98.79 yr (36082 d)
Aphelion 3.0270 AU (452.83 Gm)
Perihelion 2.4917 AU (372.75 Gm)
2.7594 AU (412.80 Gm)
Eccentricity 0.096988
4.58 yr (1674.2 d)
223.02°
0° 12m 54.108s / day
Inclination 18.042°
124.388°
88.376°
Physical characteristics
Mean radius
 24.575±0.75 km
25.230 h (1.0513 d)
0.1381±0.009
9.31

    729 Watsonia is a rare-type asteroid and namesake of the Watsonia family from the central region of the asteroid belt. It was named after the Canadian-American astronomer James C. Watson. Watsonia occulted the star HIP 53417 (54 Leonis A/B, 4.3 Magnitude Star) on 2013 Mar 03 at 01:48.

    Description

    This object is the namesake of the Watsonia family, an Asteroid family of approximately 100 asteroids that share similar spectral properties and orbital elements; hence they may have arisen from the same collisional event. All members have a relatively high orbital inclination.[2]

    References

    1. ↑ Yeomans, Donald K., "729 Watsonia", JPL Small-Body Database Browser, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, retrieved 5 May 2016.
    2. ↑ Novaković, Bojan; et al. (November 2011), "Families among high-inclination asteroids", Icarus, 216 (1), pp. 69–81, arXiv:1108.3740, Bibcode:2011Icar..216...69N, doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2011.08.016.


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