Discovery | |
---|---|
Discovered by | R. Luther |
Discovery date | April 19, 1855 |
Designations | |
Designation | (35) Leukothea |
Pronunciation | /ljuːˈkɒθiə/ [1] |
Named after | Λευκοθέα Leykothea |
1948 DC; 1950 RS1; 1976 WH | |
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) |
447.224 Gm (2.990 AU) | |
Eccentricity | 0.228 |
1,887.983 d (5.17 a) | |
Average
orbital speed | 17.00 km/s |
77.469° | |
Inclination | 7.938° |
353.817° | |
213.962° | |
Physical characteristics | |
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] |
~0.0513 km/s | |
31.900 [4] h | |
Albedo | 0.066 [5] |
Temperature | ~162 K |
Spectral type | C |
8.5 | |
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]
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]