606 Brangäne

606 Brangäne, provisional designation 1906 VB, is an asteroid from the central regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 36 kilometers (22 miles) in diameter. It was discovered on 18 September 1906, by astronomer August Kopff at the Heidelberg Observatory in southwest Germany.^[1] The unusual K-type asteroid is the namesake of the small Brangäne family and has a rotation period of 12.3 hours.^[10] It was named after Brangaine, a character from the opera Tristan und Isolde by Richard Wagner.^[2]

606 Brangäne

Discovery[1]
Discovered by	A. Kopff
Discovery site	Heidelberg Obs.
Discovery date	18 September 1906
Designations
MPC designation	(606) Brangäne
Pronunciation	German: [ˈbʁaŋɡɛːnə]
Named after	Brangaine[2] (opera character)
Alternative designations	1906 VB
Minor planet category	main-belt[1][3] · (middle) Brangäne[4]
Orbital characteristics[3]
Epoch 23 March 2018 (JD 2458200.5)
Uncertainty parameter 0
Observation arc	111.68 yr (40,792 d)
Aphelion	3.1564 AU
Perihelion	2.0181 AU
Semi-major axis	2.5872 AU
Eccentricity	0.2200
Orbital period (sidereal)	4.16 yr (1,520 d)
Mean anomaly	276.59°
Mean motion	0° 14m 12.48s / day
Inclination	8.5990°
Longitude of ascending node	318.48°
Argument of perihelion	58.344°
Physical characteristics
Mean diameter	28.15±4.91 km[5] 35.54±2.2 km[6] 35.758±0.165 km[7][8] 36.18±0.53 km[9]
Synodic rotation period	12.2950±0.0001 h[10][11]
Geometric albedo	0.096[7][9] 0.096±0.009[8] 0.0986[6] 0.13[5][12]
Spectral type	Tholen = TSD[3] SMASS = K[3][10] B–V = 0.770[3] U–B = 0.391[3]
Absolute magnitude (H)	10.20[10][12] 10.3[1][3] 10.38[6][7][9] 10.49[5]

Orbit and classification

Brangäne is the principal body of the stony Brangäne family,^[4][13] a small asteroid family of less than 200 known members.^[14] It orbits the Sun in the central main-belt at a distance of 2.0–3.2 AU once every 4 years and 2 months (1,520 days; semi-major axis of 2.59 AU). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.22 and an inclination of 9° with respect to the ecliptic.^[3]

Physical characteristics

In the SMASS classification, Brangäne is an uncommon K-type asteroid,^[3] while in the Tholen classification its spectral type is ambiguous, closest to a T-type and somewhat similar to that of an S- and D-type.^[3]

Rotation period

In November 2006, a rotational lightcurve of Brangäne was obtained from photometric observations by French amateur astronomers Raymond Poncy and René Roy. Lightcurve analysis gave a rotation period of 12.2950±0.0001 hours with a brightness amplitude of 0.20 magnitude (U=3-).^[10][11]

Diameter and albedo

According to the surveys carried out by the Infrared Astronomical Satellite IRAS, the Japanese Akari satellite and the NEOWISE mission of NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, Brangäne measures between 28.15 and 36.18 kilometers in diameter and its surface has an albedo between 0.096 and 0.13.^{[5][6][7][8][9]} The Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link adopts an albedo of 0.1075 and a diameter of 36.96 kilometers, based on an absolute magnitude of 10.2, from Petr Pravec's revised WISE-data.^[10]

Naming

This minor planet was named after Brangaine, a character from the opera Tristan und Isolde by Richard Wagner. The official naming citation was mentioned in The Names of the Minor Planets by Paul Herget in 1955 (H 64).^[2]