307 Nike is a sizeable Main belt asteroid. It was discovered by Auguste Charlois on March 5, 1891 in Nice. Charlois named it after the Greek goddess of victory, as well as the Greek name for the city where it was discovered.[2] Measurement of the light curve of this asteroid in 2000 indicates a rotation period of 7.902 ± 0.005 hours.[1]
On December 2, 1972, Pioneer 10 made one of its nearest passages of an asteroid when it passed 307 Nike at a distance of about 8.8 × 106 km during the spacecraft's pioneering trip through the asteroid belt.[3]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Lazar, S.; Lazar, P., III; Cooney, W.; Wefel, K. (June 2001). "Lightcurves and Rotation Periods for Minor Planets (305) Gordonia (307) Nike, (337) Devosa, and (352) Gisela". The Minor Planet Bulletin 28: 32–34. Bibcode:2001MPBu...28...32L.
- ↑ Schmadel, Lutz D. (2003). Dictionary of minor planet names. Physics and astronomy online library 1 (5th ed.). Springer. p. 41. ISBN 3-540-00238-3.
- ↑ Fimmel, Richard O.; van Allen, James; Burgess, Eric (1980). Pioneer: first to Jupiter, Saturn, and beyond. Washington D.C., USA: NASA Scientific and Technical Information Office.