968 Petunia
Encyclopedia
| Name | |
|---|---|
| Name | Petunia |
| Designation | 1921 KW |
| Discovery | |
| Discoverer | K. Reinmuth Karl Wilhelm Reinmuth Karl Wilhelm Reinmuth was a German astronomer.He was a prolific discoverer of asteroids , beginning with 796 Sarita in 1914, working at the Landessternwarte Heidelberg-Königstuhl astronomical observatory on the Königstuhl hill above Heidelberg, Germany from 1912 to 1957.His most notable... |
| Discovery date | November 24, 1921 |
| Discovery site | Heidelberg Landessternwarte Heidelberg-Königstuhl The Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory is an historic astronomical observatory located near the summit of the Königstuhl hill in the city of Heidelberg in Germany... |
| Orbital elements | |
| Epoch Epoch (astronomy) In astronomy, an epoch is a moment in time used as a reference point for some time-varying astronomical quantity, such as celestial coordinates, or elliptical orbital elements of a celestial body, where these are subject to perturbations and vary with time... August 18, 2005 (JDCT Julian day Julian day is used in the Julian date system of time measurement for scientific use by the astronomy community, presenting the interval of time in days and fractions of a day since January 1, 4713 BC Greenwich noon... 2453600.5) |
|
| Eccentricity (e) | 0.134 |
| Semimajor axis (a) | 2.867 AU Astronomical unit An astronomical unit is a unit of length equal to about or approximately the mean Earth–Sun distance.... |
| Perihelion (q) | 2.483 AU Astronomical unit An astronomical unit is a unit of length equal to about or approximately the mean Earth–Sun distance.... |
| Aphelion (Q) | 3.251 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... (P) |
4.854 a Julian year (astronomy) In astronomy, a Julian year is a unit of measurement of time defined as exactly 365.25 days of 86 400 SI seconds each, totaling 31 557 600 seconds. The Julian year is the average length of the year in the Julian calendar used in Western societies in previous centuries, and for which the unit is... |
| 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... (i) |
11.599° |
| Longitude of the ascending node Longitude of the ascending node The longitude of the ascending node is one of the orbital elements used to specify the orbit of an object in space. It is the angle from a reference direction, called the origin of longitude, to the direction of the ascending node, measured in a reference plane... (Ω) |
209.015° |
| Argument of Perihelion (ω) | 298.850° |
| Mean anomaly Mean anomaly In celestial mechanics, the mean anomaly is a parameter relating position and time for a body moving in a Kepler orbit. It is based on the fact that equal areas are swept at the focus in equal intervals of time.... (M) |
357.448° |
968 Petunia is a minor planet
Minor planet
An asteroid group or minor-planet group is a population of minor planets that have a share broadly similar orbits. Members are generally unrelated to each other, unlike in an asteroid family, which often results from the break-up of a single asteroid...
orbiting the Sun
Sun
The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is almost perfectly spherical and consists of hot plasma interwoven with magnetic fields...
.