147 Protogeneia is a large main belt

Asteroid belt

The asteroid belt is the region of the Solar System located roughly between the orbits of the planets Mars and Jupiter. It is occupied by numerous irregularly shaped bodies called asteroids or minor planets...

 asteroid

Asteroid

Asteroids are a class of small Solar System bodies in orbit around the Sun. They have also been called planetoids, especially the larger ones...

 with a low orbital eccentricity

Orbital eccentricity

The orbital eccentricity of an astronomical body is the amount by which its orbit deviates from a perfect circle, where 0 is perfectly circular, and 1.0 is a parabola, and no longer a closed orbit...

 and inclination. It has a dark surface and probably a primitive composition of carbonaceous

Carbonaceous

Carbonaceous is the defining attribute of a substance rich in carbon. Particularly, carbonaceous hydrocarbons are very unsaturated, high-molecular-weight hydrocarbons, having an elevated carbon:hydrogen ratio....

 material.

Protogeneia was discovered by Lipót Schulhof

Lipót Schulhof

Lipót Schulhof was a Hungarian astronomer . He was more commonly known as Leopold Schulhof , since German was the dominant language of Austria-Hungary at the time.He studied comets and asteroids...

 on July 10, 1875 from the Vienna Observatory

Vienna Observatory

Universitäts-Sternwarte Wien is an astronomical observatory in Vienna, Austria. It is part of the University of Vienna. The first observatory was built in 1753–1754 on the roof of one of the university buildings....

; it was his only asteroid discovery. Its name is Greek for "first born" and was chosen by Karl L. Littrow

Karl L. Littrow

Karl Ludwig Edler von Littrow was an Austrian astronomer.Born in Kazan, Russian Empire, son of Joseph Johann Littrow. He succeeded his father as director of the Vienna Observatory...

 in allusion to the fact that this was the first asteroid discovered by an astronomer who was already known for work in other fields of astronomy.

There is one reported stellar

Star

A star is a massive, luminous sphere of plasma held together by gravity. At the end of its lifetime, a star can also contain a proportion of degenerate matter. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun, which is the source of most of the energy on Earth...

 occultation

Occultation

An occultation is an event that occurs when one object is hidden by another object that passes between it and the observer. The word is used in astronomy . It can also refer to any situation wherein an object in the foreground blocks from view an object in the background...

 by Protogeneia, on May 28, 2002, from Texas

Texas

Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...

.

External links

• Orbital simulation from JPL (Java)
• Horizons Ephemeris