471 Papagena is an 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 was discovered by Max Wolf

Max Wolf

Maximilian Franz Joseph Cornelius Wolf was a German astronomer and a pioneer in the field of astrophotography...

 on June 7, 1901. Its provisional name was 1901 GN.

Papagena comes to a favorable near-opposition

Opposition (astronomy)

In positional astronomy, two celestial bodies are said to be in opposition when they are on opposite sides of the sky, viewed from a given place . In particular, two planets are in opposition to each other when their ecliptic longitudes differ by 180°.The astronomical symbol for opposition is ☍...

 apparent magnitude

Apparent magnitude

The apparent magnitude of a celestial body is a measure of its brightness as seen by an observer on Earth, adjusted to the value it would have in the absence of the atmosphere...

of better than magnitude 9.8 every five years. On September 30, 2010, it will be magnitude 9.68 and will get brighter every five years until December 12, 2035, when this late-to-be-discovered asteroid will be at magnitude 9.28.

External links

• Orbital simulation from JPL (Java) / Ephemeris