19 Fortuna Explained

Minorplanet:yes
Background:
  1. D6D6D6
19 Fortuna
Symbol: (historical)
Discoverer:John Russell Hind
Discovered:22 August 1852
Mpc Name:(19) Fortuna
Alt Names:A902 UG
Pronounced:[1]
Adjective:Fortunian
Named After:Fortūna
Mp Category:Main belt
Orbit Ref:[2]
Epoch:22 October 2004 (JD 2453300.5)
Semimajor:2.441 AU (365.235 Gm)
Perihelion:2.052 AU (307.028 Gm)
Aphelion:2.831 AU (423.443 Gm)
Eccentricity:0.159
Period:3.81 a (1393.378 d)
Inclination:1.573°
Asc Node:211.379°
Arg Peri:182.091°
Mean Anomaly:268.398°
Avg Speed:18.94 km/s
Dimensions:(225×205×195)±12 km
Mean Diameter:[3]
225 km[4]
Flattening:0.21
Mass:
12.7 kg[5]
Density:
Surface Grav:~0.0629 m/s²
Escape Velocity:~0.1190 km/s
Rotation:0.3101 d (7.4432 h)
Spectral Type:G
Magnitude:8.88[6] to 12.95
Abs Magnitude:7.13
Albedo:0.056 0.037
Angular Size:0.25" to 0.072"
Single Temperature:~180 K

19 Fortuna is one of the largest main-belt asteroids. It has a composition similar to 1 Ceres: a darkly colored surface that is heavily space-weathered with the composition of primitive organic compounds, including tholins.

Fortuna is 225 km in diameter and has one of the darkest known geometric albedos for an asteroid over 150 km in diameter. Its albedo has been measured at 0.028 and 0.037.[7] The spectra of the asteroid displays evidence of aqueous alteration.

The Hubble Space Telescope observed Fortuna in 1993. It was resolved with an apparent diameter of 0.20 arcseconds (4.5 pixels in the Planetary Camera) and its shape was found to be nearly spherical. Satellites were searched for but none were detected.

Stellar occultations by Fortuna have been observed several times. Fortuna has been studied by radar.[8]

It was discovered by J. R. Hind on 22 August 1852, and named after Fortuna, the Roman goddess of luck. Its historical symbol was a star over Fortune's wheel; it is in the pipeline for Unicode 17.0 as U+1CECC .[9] [10]

Fortuna has been perturbed by the 80 km 135 Hertha and was initially estimated by Baer to have a mass of 1.08 kg.[11] A more recent estimate by Baer suggests it has a mass of 1.27 kg.[5]

On 21 December 2012, Fortuna (~200 km) harmlessly passed within 6.5 Gm of asteroid 687 Tinette.[12]

Notes and References

  1. Noah Webster (1884) A Practical Dictionary of the English Language
  2. Web site: 2008-08-21 last obs . JPL Small-Body Database Browser: 19 Fortuna . 2008-11-11.
  3. P. Vernazza et al. (2021) VLT/SPHERE imaging survey of the largest main-belt asteroids: Final results and synthesis. Astronomy & Astrophysics 54, A56
  4. Storrs . Alex . Weiss, B. . Zellner, B. . Imaging Observations of Asteroids with Hubble Space Telescope . Icarus . 137 . 260–268 . 1998 . 2005-01-15 . 10.1006/icar.1999.6047 . 1999Icar..137..260S . 2 . etal . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20120225134811/http://scripts.mit.edu/~paleomag/articles/Storrs_1999_Icarus.pdf . 25 February 2012 . mdy-all.
  5. Web site: 2008. Recent Asteroid Mass Determinations. Personal Website. Jim Baer. 2008-11-27. https://web.archive.org/web/20131021074442/http://home.earthlink.net/~jimbaer1/astmass.txt. 21 October 2013. dead.
  6. Web site: AstDys (19) Fortuna Ephemerides . Department of Mathematics, University of Pisa, Italy . 2010-06-27.
  7. Storrs . Alex. Dunne. Conan. Mugnier. A closer look at main belt asteroids 1: WF/PC images. Icarus. 173 . 2 . 409–416 . 2005. 10.1016/j.icarus.2004.08.007. 2007-09-23. https://web.archive.org/web/20070418034343/http://web.mit.edu/bpweiss/www/StorrsWeiss2005AsteroidsHSTIcarus.pdf . April 18, 2007 . 2005Icar..173..409S. etal.
  8. Web site: Radar-Detected Asteroids and Comets . NASA/JPL Asteroid Radar Research . 2011-10-30.
  9. Web site: Unicode request for historical asteroid symbols . Bala . Gavin Jared . Miller . Kirk . 18 September 2023 . unicode.org . Unicode . 26 September 2023 .
  10. Web site: Proposed New Characters: The Pipeline . Unicode . unicode.org . The Unicode Consortium . 6 November 2023 .
  11. Baer . James . James Baer. Steven R. Chesley. Steven R. Chesley. Astrometric masses of 21 asteroids, and an integrated asteroid ephemeris. Celestial Mechanics and Dynamical Astronomy. 100 . 2008 . 27–42. Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2007. 10.1007/s10569-007-9103-8. 2008 . 2008CeMDA.100...27B . free.
  12. Generated with Solex 10 by Aldo Vitagliano