3494 Purple Mountain
| Discovery | |
|---|---|
| Discovered by | Purple Mountain Observatory |
| Discovery date | December 7, 1980 |
| Designations | |
Named after | Purple Mountain Observatory |
|
1980 XW; 1962 WV1; 1969 UD; 1972 OA | |
| Main belt (Vesta family) | |
| Orbital characteristics | |
| Epoch November 26, 2005 (JD 2453700.5) | |
| Aphelion | 397.281 Gm (2.656 AU) |
| Perihelion | 305.825 Gm (2.044 AU) |
| 351.553 Gm (2.350 AU) | |
| Eccentricity | 0.130 |
| 1315.820 d (3.60 a) | |
Average orbital speed | 19.35 km/s |
| 86.279° | |
| Inclination | 5.837° |
| 234.559° | |
| 72.282° | |
| Physical characteristics | |
| Temperature | ~182 K (estimate) |
Spectral type | V-type asteroid |
| 12.7 | |
|
| |
3494 Purple Mountain is a small asteroid in the asteroid belt. It is not purple; its unusual name comes from the Purple Mountain Observatory in China, where it was rediscovered in 1980, as it had been seen but lost several times since 1962. (See lost asteroids.)
Purple Mountain is a vestoid, a fragment blasted off the giant asteroid 4 Vesta by the impact that formed the Vestian collisional family. A spectroscopic analysis showed it to have a composition very similar to the cumulate eucrite meteorites.[1]
References
- ↑ Kelley, Michael S.; Vilas, Faith; Gaffey, Michael J.; Hicks, Anthony; Abell, Paul A.; Lederer, Susan M., "Mineralogical Analyses of Two Small Vesta Family Asteroids", SAO/NASA ADS—Astronomy Abstract Service, retrieved August 2015
External links
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