729 Watsonia

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729 Watsonia
Discovery
Discovered by Joel Hastings Metcalf
Discovery site Winchester, Massachusetts
Discovery date9 February 1912
Designations
(729) Watsonia
Pronunciation /wɒtˈsniə/ [1]
1912 OD
Orbital characteristics [2]
Epoch 31 July 2016 (JD 2457600.5)
Uncertainty parameter 0
Observation arc 98.79 yr (36082 d)
Aphelion 3.0270  AU (452.83  Gm)
Perihelion 2.4917 AU (372.75 Gm)
2.7594 AU (412.80 Gm)
Eccentricity 0.096988
4.58 yr (1674.2 d)
223.02°
0° 12m 54.108s / day
Inclination 18.042°
124.388°
88.376°
Physical characteristics
Mean radius
24.575±0.75 km
25.230  h (1.0513  d)
0.1381±0.009
9.31

    729 Watsonia is a rare-type asteroid and namesake of the Watsonia family from the central region of the asteroid belt. It was named after the Canadian-American astronomer James C. Watson. Watsonia occulted the star 54 Leonis (HIP 53417, a 4.3 Magnitude Star) on 2013 Mar 03 at 01:48. [3]

    Contents

    Description

    This object is the namesake of the Watsonia family, an Asteroid family of approximately 100 asteroids that share similar spectral properties and orbital elements; hence they may have arisen from the same collisional event. All members have a relatively high orbital inclination. [4]

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    (11436) 1969 QR, is a stony Florian asteroid from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 3.7 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 22 August 1969, by Czech astronomer Luboš Kohoutek at Bergedorf Observatory in Hamburg, Germany.

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    References

    1. "watsonia" . Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press.(Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
    2. Yeomans, Donald K., "729 Watsonia", JPL Small-Body Database Browser, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory , retrieved 5 May 2016.
    3. Pier Paolo Ricci (29 November 2012), Almanacco astronomico 2013 Astronomical almanac 2013, Lulu.com, pp. 322–, ISBN   978-1-291-21157-3
    4. Novaković, Bojan; et al. (November 2011), "Families among high-inclination asteroids", Icarus, vol. 216, no. 1, pp. 69–81, arXiv: 1108.3740 , Bibcode:2011Icar..216...69N, doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2011.08.016.