(39382) Opportunity
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Asteroid (39382) Opportunity |
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| Properties of the orbit ( animation ) | |
| Orbit type | Main outer belt asteroid |
| Major semi-axis | 3.9647 AU |
| eccentricity | 0.2002 |
| Perihelion - aphelion | 3.1710 AU - 4.7584 AU |
| Inclination of the orbit plane | 2.9009 ° |
| Length of the ascending node | 128.9793 ° |
| Argument of the periapsis | 297.6602 ° |
| Time of passage of the perihelion | June 6, 2016 |
| Sidereal period | 7.89 a |
| Mean orbital velocity | 14.96 km / s |
| Physical Properties | |
| Medium diameter | 7.453 (± 2.290) km |
| Albedo | 0.061 (± 0.016) |
| Absolute brightness | 14.4 mag |
| history | |
| Explorer |
Cornelis Johannes van Houten , Ingrid van Houten-Groeneveld , Tom Gehrels |
| Date of discovery | September 24, 1960 |
| Another name | 2696 PL |
| Source: Unless otherwise stated, the data comes from JPL Small-Body Database Browser . The affiliation to an asteroid family is automatically determined from the AstDyS-2 database . Please also note the note on asteroid items. | |
(39382) Opportunity is an asteroid of the main outer belt that was discovered on September 24, 1960 by the Dutch astronomer couple Cornelis Johannes van Houten and Ingrid van Houten-Groeneveld . The discovery came about as part of the Palomar-Leiden survey , during which Tom Gehrels examined field plates recorded at the University of Leiden with the 120 cm Oschin Schmidt telescope of the Palomar observatory .
The mean diameter of the asteroid was estimated at 3 to 7 kilometers, according to more recent, also very rough calculations, the mean diameter is 7.453 (± 2.290) kilometers. It belongs to the Hilda group, which means that it moves in an orbital resonance of 3: 2 with the planet Jupiter around the sun . This group is named after the asteroid (153) Hilda .
(39382) Opportunity was named on September 28, 2004 after the US space probe Opportunity , which examined rock layers in the crater wall of the Martian crater Eagle in the Meridiani Planum plain in January 2004 . The suggestion for naming the asteroids (39382) Opportunity and (37452) Spirit came from Ingrid van Houten-Groeneveld in 2002 after reliable data about the solar orbits were available and the asteroids had been given a number.
Web links
- (39382) Opportunity in the database of the "Asteroids - Dynamic Site" (AstDyS-2, English).
- (39382) Opportunity in the Small-Body Database of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory .
- Discovery Circumstances of (39382) Opportunity according to the Minor Planet Center of the International Astronomical Union at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge , Massachusetts (English)
Individual evidence
- ^ A b Like Rover, Like Asteroid . Article from October 11, 2004 on marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov (English)