159 Aemilia Monday, June 22, 2009

Discovery
Discovered by P. P. Henry
Discovery date January 26, 1876
Designations
Alternate name 1904 OK, 1959 EG1
Minor planet
category
Main belt (Hygiea family)
Epoch 26 November 2005 (JD 2453700.5)
Aphelion 515.348 Gm (3.445 AU)
Perihelion 412.241 Gm (2.756 AU)
Semi-major axis 463.794 Gm (3.100 AU)
Eccentricity 0.111
Orbital period 1993.879 d (5.46 a)
Average orbital speed 16.86 km/s
Mean anomaly 227.956°
Inclination 6.128°
Longitude of ascending node 134.336°
Argument of perihelion 335.594°
Physical characteristics
Dimensions 125 km[1]
Mass ~1.4×1018 kg (estimate)
Mean density ~1.4 g/cm³ (estimate)[4]
Equatorial surface gravity ~0.024 m/s² (estimate)
Escape velocity ~0.055 km/s (estimate)
Rotation period ~1.05 d [2]
Albedo 0.0639 [1]
Temperature ~160 K
max: 239K (-34° C)
Spectral type C
Absolute magnitude (H) 8.12

159 Aemilia is a large Main belt asteroid. This slowly rotating, dark asteroid has a primitive carbonaceous composition.

It orbits within the Hygiea family, although it may be an unrelated interloping asteroid, as it is too big to have arisen from the cratering process that most likely produced that family.

Aemilia was discovered by the brothers Paul Henry and Prosper Henry on January 26, 1876. The credit for this discovery was given to Paul. It is probably named after the Via Aemilia, a Roman road in Italy that runs from Piacenza to Rimini.

Two stellar occultations by Aemilia have been recorded so far, the first in 2001 and the second in 2003 [3].

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