196 Philomela

Orbital characteristics [ftp://ftp.lowell.edu/pub/elgb/astorb.html 1]
Orbit Orbit In physics, an orbit is the gravitationally curved path of an object around a point in space, for example the orbit of a planet around the center of a star system, such as the Solar System...  type	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...
Semimajor axis	3.112 AU Astronomical unit An astronomical unit is a unit of length equal to about or approximately the mean Earth–Sun distance....
Perihelion distance	3.035 AU Astronomical unit An astronomical unit is a unit of length equal to about or approximately the mean Earth–Sun distance....
Aphelion distance	3.189 AU Astronomical unit An astronomical unit is a unit of length equal to about or approximately the mean Earth–Sun distance....
Orbital period Orbital period The orbital period is the time taken for a given object to make one complete orbit about another object.When mentioned without further qualification in astronomy this refers to the sidereal period of an astronomical object, which is calculated with respect to the stars.There are several kinds of...	5.49 years
Inclination Inclination Inclination in general is the angle between a reference plane and another plane or axis of direction.-Orbits:The inclination is one of the six orbital parameters describing the shape and orientation of a celestial orbit...	7.25°
Eccentricity	0.025
Physical characteristics [ftp://ftp.lowell.edu/pub/elgb/astorb.html 1]
Diameter Diameter In geometry, a diameter of a circle is any straight line segment that passes through the center of the circle and whose endpoints are on the circle. The diameters are the longest chords of the circle...	136.3 km
Rotation period Rotation period The rotation period of an astronomical object is the time it takes to complete one revolution around its axis of rotation relative to the background stars...  3	8.343 hours
Spectral class	S S-type asteroid S-type asteroids are of a stony composition, hence the name. Approximately 17% of asteroids are of this type, making it the second most common after the C-type.-Characteristics:...
Abs. magnitude Absolute magnitude Absolute magnitude is the measure of a celestial object's intrinsic brightness. it is also the apparent magnitude a star would have if it were 32.6 light years away from Earth...	6.54
Albedo Albedo Albedo , or reflection coefficient, is the diffuse reflectivity or reflecting power of a surface. It is defined as the ratio of reflected radiation from the surface to incident radiation upon it...  4	0.228
History 2
Discoverer	C. H. F. Peters Christian Heinrich Friedrich Peters Christian Heinrich Friedrich Peters was a German-American astronomer, and one of the first to discover asteroids.... , 1879

196 Philomela is a large and bright 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...

. It is an S-type asteroid

S-type asteroid

S-type asteroids are of a stony composition, hence the name. Approximately 17% of asteroids are of this type, making it the second most common after the C-type.-Characteristics:...

.

It was discovered by C. H. F. Peters

Christian Heinrich Friedrich Peters

Christian Heinrich Friedrich Peters was a German-American astronomer, and one of the first to discover asteroids....

 on May 14, 1879, in Clinton, New York

Clinton, Oneida County, New York

Clinton is a village in Oneida County, New York, United States. The population was 1,952 at the 2000 census. It was named for George Clinton, a royal governor of the colony of New York....

 and named after Philomela

Philomela

In Greek mythology, Philomela was a daughter of Pandion I and Zeuxippe, and a sister of Procne. Despite Ovid's fanciful etymology as "lover of song" , the name means "lover of fruit," "lover of apples," or "lover of sheep."-Myth:Procne's husband, King Tereus of Thrace In Greek mythology,...

, the woman who became a nightingale

Nightingale

The Nightingale , also known as Rufous and Common Nightingale, is a small passerine bird that was formerly classed as a member of the thrush family Turdidae, but is now more generally considered to be an Old World flycatcher, Muscicapidae...

 in Greek mythology

Greek mythology

Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the ancient Greeks, concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. They were a part of religion in ancient Greece...

.

In the late 1990s, a network of astronomers worldwide gathered lightcurve data that was ultimately used to derive the spin states and shape models of 10 new asteroids, including (196) Philomela.

To date there have been two reported Philomelian 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...

s.