114 Kassandra

114 Kassandra
Discovery
Discovered by Christian Heinrich Friedrich Peters
Discovery date July 23, 1871
Designations
Named after
 Cassandra
Main belt
Orbital characteristics[1]
Epoch December 31, 2006 (JD 2454100.5)
Aphelion 455.349 Gm (3.044 AU)
Perihelion 345.330 Gm (2.308 AU)
400.339 Gm (2.676 AU)
Eccentricity 0.137
1599.016 d (4.38 a)
18.12 km/s
128.546°
Inclination 4.936°
164.350°
352.977°
Physical characteristics
Dimensions 99.798[2] km
Mass 1.0×1018 kg
0.0278 m/s²
0.0527 km/s
10.758[3] h
Albedo 0.0868 ± 0.0252[2]
Temperature ~170 K
Spectral type
 T (Tholen)[2]
8.275[2]

    114 Kassandra is a large and dark main-belt asteroid. It belongs to the rare class T. It was discovered by C. H. F. Peters on July 23, 1871, and is named after Cassandra, the prophetess in the tales of the Trojan War. The asteroid is featured in the 2009 film Meteor: Path to Destruction, in which it is split in two by a comet, and set on a collision course with Earth.

    This object is classified as a rare T-type asteroid, with parts of the spectrum displaying properties similar to the mineral troilite and to carbonaceous chondrite.[4] The shape of the spectrum also appears similar to fine grain from the Ornans meteorite, which landed in France in 1968.[5] The light curve for this asteroid displays a period of 10.758 ± 0.004 hours with a brightness variation of 0.25 ± 0.01 in magnitude.[3]

    During 2001, 114 Kassandra was observed by radar from the Arecibo Observatory. The return signal matched an effective diameter of 100 ± 14 km. This is consistent with the asteroid dimensions computed through other means.[6]

    In the plot of 2009 disaster Meteor_(TV_miniseries) 114 Kassandra was deflected by a collision with a comet, putting it on a collision course with earth.

    References

    1. ↑ Yeomans, Donald K., "114 Kassandra", JPL Small-Body Database Browser (NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory), retrieved 2013-03-25.
    2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Pravec, P. et al. (May 2012), "Absolute Magnitudes of Asteroids and a Revision of Asteroid Albedo Estimates from WISE Thermal Observations", Asteroids, Comets, Meteors 2012, Proceedings of the conference held May 16-20, 2012 in Niigata, Japan (1667), Bibcode:2012LPICo1667.6089P.
    3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Hutton, R. G.; Blain, A. (December 1988), "V+B Photoelectric Photometry of Asteroid 114 Kassandra", Bulletin of the Minor Planets Section of the Assoc iation of Lunar and Planetary Observers 15: 39, Bibcode:1988MPBu...15...39H.
    4. ↑ Dotto, E. et al. (October 2002), "ISO observations of low and moderate albedo asteroids. PHT-P and PHT-S results", Astronomy and Astrophysics 393: 1065–1072, Bibcode:2002A&A...393.1065D, doi:10.1051/0004-6361:20021190.
    5. ↑ Hamilton, Victoria E. (March 2010), "Thermal infrared (vibrational) spectroscopy of Mg-Fe olivines: A review and applications to determining the composition of planetary surfaces", Chemie der Erde - Geochemistry 70 (1): 7–33, Bibcode:2010ChEG...70....7H, doi:10.1016/j.chemer.2009.12.005.
    6. ↑ Magri, Christopher et al. (January 2007), "A radar survey of main-belt asteroids: Arecibo observations of 55 objects during 1999–2003", Icarus 186 (1): 126–151, Bibcode:2007Icar..186..126M, doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2006.08.018