10 Hygiea

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10 Hygiea A Rod of Asclepius (an ancient Greek symbol associated with medicine)
Animated orbit of Hygiea relative to the orbits of the terrestrial planets and Jupiter.
Discovered by A. de Gasparis
Discovery date April 12, 1849
Pronunciation /hˈə/ hy-JEE
Named after
Minor planet category Main belt (Hygiea family)
Adjectives Hygiean
Orbital characteristics[1]
Epoch November 30, 2008 (JD 2454800.5)
Aphelion 3.507 AU
(524.63 Gm) (Q)
Perihelion 2.770 AU
(414.38 Gm) (q)
3.139 AU
(469.58 Gm)
Eccentricity 0.117
5.56 yr
(2031.01 d)
16.76 km/s
197.96° (M)
Inclination 3.842°
Proper orbital elements[2]
3.1417827 AU
64.621768 deg / yr
5.57088 yr
(2034.763 d)
Precession of perihelion
128.543611 arcsec / yr
Precession of the ascending node
−96.902395 arcsec / yr
Physical characteristics
Dimensions 530×407×370 ±7 km[3]
431 km (mean)
837,080.744 km2 (323,198.682 sq mi)
Mass (8.67 ±0.15)×1019 kg[3]
Mean density
2.08 ± 0.10 g/cm³[3]
0.091 m/s²
0.21 km/s
27.623 h (1.15 d)[1]
Albedo 0.0717 (geometric)[1]
Temperature ≈164 K
max: 247 K (−26°C) [4]
Spectral type
C-type asteroid[1]
9.0[5] to 11.97
0.321″ to 0.133″

10 Hygiea is the fourth largest asteroid in the Solar System by volume and mass, and it is located in the asteroid belt. With somewhat oblong diameters of 350–500 km and a mass estimated to be 2.9% of the total mass of the belt,[6] it is the largest of the class of dark C-type asteroids with a carbonaceous surface.

Despite its size, it appears very dim when observed from Earth. This is due to its dark surface and larger-than-average distance from the Sun. For this reason, several smaller asteroids were observed before Annibale de Gasparis discovered Hygiea on April 12, 1849. At most oppositions, Hygiea has a magnitude that is four magnitudes dimmer than Vesta's, and observing it will require at least a 100 millimetres (3.9 in) telescope. However, while at a perihelic opposition, it may be observable with 10x50 binoculars.

Discovery and name[edit]

Hygiea was discovered by Annibale de Gasparis on April 12, 1849, in Naples, Italy.[7] It was the first of his nine asteroid discoveries. The director of the Naples observatory, Ernesto Capocci, named the asteroid. He chose to call it Igea Borbonica ("Bourbon Hygieia") in honor of the ruling family of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies where Naples was located.[8]

However, in 1852, John Russell Hind wrote that "it is universally termed Hygeia, the unnecessary appendage 'Borbonica' being dropped."[8] The name comes from Hygieia, the Greek goddess of health, daughter of Asclepius (Aesculapius for the Romans).[9] The name was often spelled Hygeia in the nineteenth century, for example in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.[10]

Physical characteristics[edit]

Sizes of the first 10 asteroids discovered profiled against Earth's Moon. Hygiea is furthest right.
The IAU 2006 draft proposal listed Hygiea as a candidate planet[11]

Based on spectral evidence, Hygiea's surface is thought to consist of primitive carbonaceous materials similar to those found in carbonaceous chondrite meteorites. Aqueous alteration products have been detected on its surface, which could indicate the presence of water ice in the past which was heated sufficiently to melt.[9] The primitive present surface composition would indicate that Hygiea had not been melted during the early period of Solar System formation,[9] in contrast to other large planetesimals like 4 Vesta.

It is the main member of the Hygiea family and contains almost all the mass (well over 90%) in this family. It is the largest of the class of dark C-type asteroids that are dominant in the outer asteroid belt — which lie beyond the Kirkwood gap at 2.82 AU. Hygiea appears to have a noticeably oblate spheroid shape, with an average diameter of 444 ± 35 km and a semimajor axis ratio of 1.11.[9] This is much more than for the other objects in the "big four" — 2 Pallas, 4 Vesta and the dwarf planet Ceres. Aside from being the smallest of the four, Hygiea, like Ceres, has a relatively low density, which is more comparable to the icy satellites of Jupiter or Saturn than to the terrestrial planets or the stony asteroids.

While it is the largest body in its region, due to its dark surface and larger-than-average distance from the Sun, it appears very dim when observed from Earth. In fact, it is the third dimmest of the first twenty-three asteroids discovered, with only 13 Egeria and 17 Thetis having lower mean opposition magnitudes.[12] At most oppositions, Hygiea has a magnitude of around +10.2,[12] which is as much as four orders fainter than Vesta, and it will require at least a 4-inch (100 mm) telescope to resolve.[13] However, at a perihelic opposition, Hygiea can reach +9.1 and may just be resolvable with 10x50 binoculars, unlike the next two largest asteroids in the asteroid belt, 704 Interamnia and 511 Davida, which are always beyond binocular visibility.

At least 5 stellar occultations by Hygiea have been tracked by Earth-based astronomers,[14] but all with few independent observers so that little was learned of its shape. The Hubble Space Telescope has resolved the asteroid and ruled out the presence of any orbiting companions larger than about 16 kilometres (9.9 mi) in diameter.[15]

Orbit and rotation[edit]

A rotating frame depiction of asteroid Hygeia's orbital motion relative to Jupiter; the latter (purple loop at upper right) is held nearly stationary (click twice to see animation)

Generally, Hygiea's properties are the most poorly known out of the "big four" objects in the asteroid belt. Its orbit is much closer to the plane of the ecliptic than those of Ceres, Pallas or Interamnia,[9] but is less circular than Ceres or Vesta with an eccentricity of around 12%.[1] Its perihelion is at a quite similar longitude to those of Vesta and Ceres, though its ascending and descending nodes are opposite to the corresponding ones for those objects. Although its perihelion is extremely close to the mean distance of Ceres and Pallas, a collision between Hygiea and its larger companions is impossible because at that distance they are always on opposite sides of the ecliptic. In 2056, Hygiea will pass 0.025AU from Ceres, and then in 2063, Hygiea will pass 0.020AU from Pallas.[16] At aphelion Hygiea reaches out to the extreme edge of the asteroid belt at the perihelia of the Hilda family which is in 3:2 resonance with Jupiter.[17] Hygiea is used by the Minor Planet Center to calculate perturbations.[18]

It is an unusually slow rotator, taking 27 hours and 37 minutes for a revolution,[1] whereas 6 to 12 hours are more typical for large asteroids. Its direction of rotation is not certain at present, due to a twofold ambiguity in lightcurve data that is exacerbated by its long rotation period—which makes single-night telescope observations span at best only a fraction of a full rotation—but it is believed to be retrograde.[9] Lightcurve analysis indicates that Hygiea's pole points towards either ecliptic coordinates (β, λ) = (30°, 115°) or (30°, 300°) with a 10° uncertainty.[19] This gives an axial tilt of about 60° in both cases.

See also[edit]


  1. ^ a b c d e f g "JPL Small-Body Database Browser: 10 Hygiea". Retrieved 2008-09-07. 
  2. ^ "AstDyS-2 Hygiea Synthetic Proper Orbital Elements". Department of Mathematics, University of Pisa, Italy. Retrieved 2011-10-01. 
  3. ^ a b c Jim Baer (2010). "Recent Asteroid Mass Determinations". Personal Website. Retrieved 2011-09-02. 
  4. ^ L.F. Lim; McConnochie, T; Belliii, J; Hayward, T (2005). "Thermal infrared (8–13 µm) spectra of 29 asteroids: the Cornell Mid-Infrared Asteroid Spectroscopy (MIDAS) Survey". Icarus 173 (2): 385. Bibcode:2005Icar..173..385L. doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2004.08.005. 
  5. ^ "AstDys (10) Hygiea Ephemerides". Department of Mathematics, University of Pisa, Italy. Retrieved 2010-06-26. 
  6. ^ "Mass of 10 Hygiea" 0.445 / "Mass of Mbelt" 15 = 0.0296
  7. ^ A. O. Leuschner (1922-07-15). "Comparison of Theory with Observation for the Minor planets 10 Hygiea and 175 Andromache with Respect to Perturbations by Jupiter". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (National Academy of Sciences) 8 (7): 170–173. Bibcode:1922PNAS....8..170L. doi:10.1073/pnas.8.7.170. PMC 1085085. PMID 16586868. 
  8. ^ a b John Russell Hind (1852). The Solar System: Descriptive Treatise Upon the Sun, Moon, and Planets, Including an Account of All the Recent Discoveries. G. P. Putnam. p. 126. 
  9. ^ a b c d e f Barucci, M (2002). "10 Hygiea: ISO Infrared Observations". Icarus 156 (1): 202. Bibcode:2002Icar..156..202B. doi:10.1006/icar.2001.6775. 
  10. ^ Hartnup, J. (June 1850). "Observations of Hygeia". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 10: 162. Bibcode:1850MNRAS..10..162H. doi:10.1093/mnras/10.8.162b. 
  11. ^ O. Gingerich (2006). "The Path to Defining Planets" (PDF). Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and IAU EC Planet Definition Committee chair. Archived from the original on 6 March 2007. Retrieved 2007-03-13. 
  12. ^ a b Moh'd Odeh. "The Brightest Asteroids". The Jordanian Astronomical Society. Archived from the original on 11 May 2008. Retrieved 2008-05-21. 
  13. ^ "What Can I See Through My Scope?". Ballauer Observatory. 2004. Retrieved 2008-07-20. 
  14. ^ James L. Hilton. "Asteroid Masses and Densities" (PDF). U.S. Naval Observatory. Lunar and Planetar Institute. Archived from the original on 19 August 2008. Retrieved 2008-08-26. 
  15. ^ A. Storrs (1999). "Imaging Observations of Asteroids with Hubble Space Telescope". Icarus 137 (2): 260. Bibcode:1999Icar..137..260S. doi:10.1006/icar.1999.6047. 
  16. ^ "JPL Close-Approach Data: 10 Hygiea". 2009-11-27. Retrieved 2010-03-02. 
  17. ^ L’vov V.N., Smekhacheva R.I., Smirnov S.S., Tsekmejster S.D. "Some Peculiarities in the Hildas' Motion" (PDF). Central (Pulkovo) Astronomical Observatory of Russian Academy of Sciences. Retrieved 2008-09-07. 
  18. ^ "Perturbing Bodies". Minor Planet Center. Retrieved 18 April 2013. 
  19. ^ M. Kaasalainen (2002). "Models of Twenty Asteroids from Photometric Data" (PDF). Icarus 159 (2): 369. Bibcode:2002Icar..159..369K. doi:10.1006/icar.2002.6907. Retrieved 2009-06-23. 

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