35 Leukothea

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,^[6] 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 𜻐 ().^[7][8]

35 Leukothea

Three-dimensional model of 35 Leukothea created based on light-curve
Discovery
Discovered by	R. Luther
Discovery date	April 19, 1855
Designations
Designation	(35) Leukothea
Pronunciation	/ljuːˈkɒθiə/[1]
Named after	Λευκοθέα Leykothea
Alternative names	1948 DC; 1950 RS1; 1976 WH
Minor planet category	Main belt
Adjectives	Leukothean /ljuːˈkɒθiən/
Symbol	(historical)
Orbital characteristics[2]
Epoch December 31, 2006 (JD 2454100.5)
Aphelion	549.374 Gm (3.672 AU)
Perihelion	345.074 Gm (2.307 AU)
Semi-major axis	447.224 Gm (2.990 AU)
Eccentricity	0.228
Orbital period (sidereal)	1,887.983 d (5.17 a)
Average orbital speed	17.00 km/s
Mean anomaly	77.469°
Inclination	7.938°
Longitude of ascending node	353.817°
Argument of perihelion	213.962°
Physical characteristics
Mean diameter	103.05 ± 1.2 km[3]
Mass	(1.014 ± 0.491/0.321)×1018 kg[3]
Mean density	1.769 ± 0.857/0.56 g/cm3[3]
Escape velocity	~0.0513 km/s
Synodic rotation period	31.900[4] h
Albedo	0.066[5]
Temperature	~162 K
Spectral type	C
Absolute magnitude (H)	8.5

Leukothea is a C-type asteroid in the Tholen classification system,^[2] suggesting a carbonaceous composition. It is orbiting the Sun with a period of 5.17 years 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 31.900±0.001 hours and a brightness variability of 0.42±0.04 in magnitude. This is consistent with previous studies in 1990 and 2008.^[4]

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.^[9]