(9969) Braille

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Asteroid
(9969) Braille
(9969) Braille captured by the Deep Space 1 spacecraft
(9969) Braille captured by the Deep Space 1 spacecraft
Properties of the orbit ( animation )
Epoch:  4th September 2017 ( JD 2,458,000.5)
Orbit type Main belt asteroid
Major semi-axis 2.3410  AU
eccentricity 0.4334
Perihelion - aphelion 1.3263 AU - 3.3557 AU
Inclination of the orbit plane 28.9986 °
Length of the ascending node 242.0 °
Argument of the periapsis 356.1 °
Sidereal period 3.58 a
Physical Properties
Medium diameter 2.1 × 1.0 × 1.0 km
Albedo 0.34 ± 0.03
Absolute brightness 15.9 mag
Spectral class SMASSII: Q
history
Explorer E. Helin , K. J. Lawrence
Date of discovery May 27, 1992
Another name 1992 KD
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.

(9969) Braille is an asteroid of the main asteroid belt discovered on May 27, 1992 by Eleanor Helin and Kenneth J. Lawrence at the Palomar Observatory . It is about two kilometers long and one kilometer wide.

The asteroid was named on July 28, 1999 in honor of Louis Braille , the pioneer in the development of Braille .

Braille moves between around 1.3 astronomical units ( perihelion ) to 3.4 astronomical units ( aphelion ) in an elliptical orbit around the sun. The orbit is strongly inclined towards the ecliptic at 29 ° , the orbit eccentricity is 0.43.

On July 29, 1999, the Deep Space 1 spacecraft passed the very dark asteroid just 28 km away. Due to a technical error, however, the probe's automatic camera turned away from the asteroid so that no close-up pictures were taken. Only 15 minutes after the flyby - by this time the probe had already moved 13,500 km away - could recordings be made. They show an elongated, very irregular celestial body.

The composition of the spectrographic data from Deep Space 1 largely corresponds to that of Vesta . The asteroid is thus assigned to the V-type . Presumably it is a fragment of the large asteroid Vesta, which was cut off in the past as a result of a collision with another celestial body.

Web links

Commons : (9969) Braille  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Oberst et al. (2001): A model for rotation and shape of Asteroid 9969 Braille from ground-based observations and images obtained during the Deep Space 1 (DS1) flyby ; Icarus 153, pp. 16-23
  2. Buratti et al. (2004): 9969 Braille: Deep Space 1 infrared spectroscopy, geometric albedo, and classification ; Icarus 167, pp. 129-135