8 Flora
main-belt asteroid / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
8 Flora is a big, bright, main belt asteroid. It is the closest big asteroid: no asteroid closer to the Sun has a diameter above 25 kilometres or two-elevenths that of Flora itself, and not until the tiny 149 Medusa was found was a single asteroid orbiting at a closer mean distance known.[6] It is the seventh brightest asteroid with a mean opposition magnitude of +8.7.[7] Flora can reach a magnitude of +7.9 at a favorable opposition near perihelion, such as will occur in mid November 2007.
Quick Facts Discovery, Discovered by ...
Discovery | |
---|---|
Discovered by | J.R. Hind |
Discovery date | October 18, 1847 |
Designations | |
none | |
Main belt (Flora family) | |
Orbital characteristics | |
Epoch November 26, 2005 (JD 2453700.5) | |
Aphelion | 380.850 Gm (2.546 AU) |
Perihelion | 277.995 Gm (1.858 AU) |
329.422 Gm (2.202 AU) | |
Eccentricity | 0.1561 |
1193.549 d (3.27 a) | |
Average orbital speed | 19.95 km/s |
156.401° | |
Inclination | 5.886° |
111.011° | |
285.128° | |
Physical characteristics | |
Dimensions | 145×145×120 km[1][2] |
Mass | ~3.6×1018 kg |
Mean density | ~2.7 g/cm³[3] |
~0.045 m/s² | |
~0.081 km/s | |
0.5363 d (12.87 h)[4] | |
Albedo | 0.243 (geometric)[1] |
Temperature | ~180 K max: 276 K (+3 °C) |
Spectral type | S-type asteroid |
7.9[5] to 11.6 | |
6.49 | |
0.21" to 0.053" | |
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