968 Petunia
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_Petunia.png) Modelled shape of Petunia from its lightcurve | |
| Discovery[1] | |
|---|---|
| Discovered by | K. Reinmuth |
| Discovery site | Heidelberg Obs. |
| Discovery date | 24 November 1921 |
| Designations | |
| (968) Petunia | |
| Pronunciation | /pɪˈtjuːniə/[2] |
Named after | Petunia[3] (genus of flowers) |
| A921 WJ · 1935 QK1 1948 KC · 1921 KW | |
| main-belt[1][4] · (outer) Itha[5] | |
| Orbital characteristics[4] | |
| Epoch 31 May 2020 (JD 2459000.5) | |
| Uncertainty parameter 0 | |
| Observation arc | 98.19 yr (35,865 d) |
| Aphelion | 3.2572 AU |
| Perihelion | 2.4741 AU |
| 2.8657 AU | |
| Eccentricity | 0.1366 |
| 4.85 yr (1,772 d) | |
| 15.803° | |
| 0° 12m 11.52s / day | |
| Inclination | 11.598° |
| 208.84° | |
| 297.54° | |
| Physical characteristics | |
| 61.280±0.005 h[9][10] | |
Pole ecliptic latitude | (355.0°, −78.0°) (λ1/β1)[5] |
| 10.2[1][4] | |
968 Petunia (prov. designation: A921 WJ or 1921 KW), is a stony asteroid of the Itha family, approximately 28 kilometers (17 miles) in diameter, located in the outer region of the asteroid belt. It was discovered on 24 November 1921, by astronomer Karl Reinmuth at the Heidelberg Observatory in southern Germany.[1] The bright S-type asteroid has a long rotation period of 61.3 hours. It was named after the genus of flowering plants, Petunia.[3]
When applying the synthetic hierarchical clustering method (HCM) by Nesvorný, Petunia is a member of the Itha family (633),[5] a small family of stony asteroids in the outer main belt, named after 918 Itha.[5][13] However, it is a background asteroid according to another HCM-analysis by Milani and Knežević (AstDys).[14] Petunia orbits the Sun at a distance of 2.5–3.3 AU once every 4 years and 10 months (1,772 days; semi-major axis of 2.87 AU). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.14 and an inclination of 12° with respect to the ecliptic.[4] The asteroid was first observed at Heidelberg Observatory on 25 October 1921, where the body's observation arc begins with its official discovery observation one month later on 24 November 1921.[1]
Naming
This minor planet was named after a genus of tropical American herbs, Petunia. This genus of flowering plants belongs to the family of Solanaceae (nightshades) and shows funnel-shaped corollas. The naming was mentioned in The Names of the Minor Planets by Paul Herget in 1955 (H 93).[3] Only a minority of minor planets are after animals and plants.
