34 Circe Explained

Background:
  1. D6D6D6
34 Circe
Discovered:April 6, 1855
Mpc Name:(34) Circe
Pronounced:[1]
Adjective:Circean
Alt Names:1965 JL
Epoch:November 4, 2013 (JD 2456600.5)
Semimajor:2.686984 AU
Perihelion:2.406230 AU
Eccentricity:0.1045
Period:4.40 a (1607.332 d)
Inclination:5.498°
Asc Node:184.44157°
Arg Peri:330.2330°
Mean Anomaly:39.80474°
Avg Speed:18.12 km/s
Dimensions:113.02 ± 4.90 km
Density:4.83 ± 0.63 g/cm3
Surface Grav:~0.0317 m/s²
Escape Velocity:~0.0600 km/s
Rotation:0.5063 d (12.15 h)
Abs Magnitude:8.51
Albedo:0.0541
Single Temperature:~172 K

34 Circe is a large, very dark main-belt asteroid. It was discovered by French astronomer J. Chacornac on April 6, 1855, and named after Circe, the bewitching queen of Aeaea island in Greek mythology.

The spectrum of this object matches a C-type asteroid, suggesting a carbonaceous composition. It has a cross-section size of 113 km and is orbiting the Sun with a period of 4.40 years. Photometric observations of this asteroid made during 2007 at the Organ Mesa Observatory in Las Cruces, New Mexico gave an asymmetrical bimodal light curve with a period of 12.176 ± 0.002 hours and a brightness variation of 0.17 ± 0.02 in magnitude. The spectra of the asteroid displays evidence of aqueous alteration.

Notes and References

  1. Encyclopedia: Circe . https://web.archive.org/web/20200322185709/https://www.lexico.com/definition/circe . dead . 22 March 2020 . Lexico UK English Dictionary . Oxford University Press.