283 Emma 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...

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It was discovered by Auguste Charlois

Auguste Charlois

Auguste Honoré Charlois was a French astronomer who discovered 99 asteroids while working in Nice.His first discovery was the asteroid 267 Tirza in 1887...

 on February 8, 1889, in Nice

Nice

Nice is the fifth most populous city in France, after Paris, Marseille, Lyon and Toulouse, with a population of 348,721 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Nice extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of more than 955,000 on an area of...

.

Satellite

A companion for 283 Emma was detected on 14 July 2003 by W. J. Merline et al. using the Keck II telescope

Keck telescopes

The W. M. Keck Observatory is a two-telescope astronomical observatory at an elevation of near the summit of Mauna Kea in Hawai'i. The primary mirrors of each of the two telescopes are in diameter, making them the second largest optical telescopes in the world, slightly behind the Gran Telescopio...

. It is about 12 km in diameter and is designated S/2003 (283) 1. The announcement is contained in the International Astronomical Union

International Astronomical Union

The International Astronomical Union IAU is a collection of professional astronomers, at the Ph.D. level and beyond, active in professional research and education in astronomy...

 Circular (IAUC) 8165. The satellite orbits Emma at a distance of about 370 km. When the orbit is known well enough, the satellite will receive a permanent number and name.

External links

• Orbital simulation from JPL (Java) / Ephemeris
• Orbits of Binary Asteroids with Adaptive Optics (VLT
  Very Large Telescope
  The Very Large Telescope is a telescope operated by the European Southern Observatory on Cerro Paranal in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile. The VLT consists of four individual telescopes, each with a primary mirror 8.2m across, which are generally used separately but can be used together to...
  
  images)