55 Pandora

Pandora (minor planet designation: 55 Pandora) is a fairly large and very bright asteroid in the asteroid belt. Pandora was discovered by American astronomer and Catholic priest George Mary Searle on September 10, 1858, from the Dudley Observatory near Albany, NY.[5] It was his first and only asteroid discovery.

For the moon of Saturn, see Pandora (moon).
55 Pandora
Lightcurve-based 3D-model of Pandora
Discovery
Discovered byGeorge Mary Searle
Discovery siteAlbany, New York
Discovery dateSeptember 10, 1858
Designations
(55) Pandora
Pronunciation/pænˈdɔːrə/[1]
Named after
Pandora
Main belt
AdjectivesPandorian /pænˈdɔːriən/[2]
Orbital characteristics[3]
Epoch June 27, 2015
Aphelion3.152 AU (471.5 Gm)
Perihelion2.367 AU (354.1 Gm)
2.760 AU (412.9 Gm)
Eccentricity0.142
4.58 yr (1,674 d)
61.834°
Inclination7.186°
10.432°
3.944°
Physical characteristics
Dimensions66.7 km
Mass3.1×1017 kg
4.8040 h [3]
0.301 [3]
M[4]
7.7

    It is named after Pandora, the first woman in Greek mythology, who unwisely opened a box that released evil into the world. The name was apparently chosen by Blandina Dudley, widow of the founder of the Dudley Observatory, who had been involved in an acrimonious dispute with astronomer B. A. Gould. Gould felt that the name had an "apt significance".[6] The asteroid shares its name with Pandora, a moon of Saturn.

    This object is orbiting the Sun with a period of 4.58 years, a semimajor axis of 2.76 AU, and an eccentricity of 0.14. Its orbital plane lies at an angle of 7.2° to the plane of the ecliptic. Photometric observations of this asteroid at the Rozhen Observatory in Bulgaria during 2010 gave a light curve with a period of 4.7992 hours and a brightness variation of Δm=0.22 mag. This is consistent with a period of 4.804 hours and an amplitude of 0.24 obtained during a 1977 study.[7] It has a cross-sectional size of 66.7 km.

    See also

    References
    1. "Pandora". Oxford English Dictionary (3rd ed.). Oxford University Press. September 2005. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
    2. John Krumpelmann (1959) Bayard Taylor and German Letters, p. 122
    3. "55 Pandora". JPL Small-Body Database Browser. NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Retrieved 14 September 2015.
    4. Britt, Daniel; et al. (November 2014), "Space Weathering in Olivine and the Mineralogy of (Some) M-Class Asteroids", American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #46, Bibcode:2014DPS....4650601B, 506.01.
    5. "Numbered Minor Planets 1–5000", Discovery Circumstances, IAU Minor Planet center, retrieved 7 April 2013.
    6. Schmadel, Lutz D. (2003). Dictionary of Minor Planet Names. Springer Science & Business Media. p. 20. ISBN 978-3-540-00238-3.
    7. Radeva, V.; et al. (2011), "Rotation periods of the asteroids 55 Pandora, 78 Diana and 815 Coppelia", Bulgarian Astronomical Journal, 17, pp. 133–141, Bibcode:2012MPBu...39...57P.

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