8 Flora is a large, brightmain-beltasteroid. It is the innermostlarge asteroid: no asteroid closer to the Sun has a diameter above 25 kilometers (20% that of Flora), and not until 20-km149 Medusa was discovered was an asteroid known to orbit at a closer mean distance.[8] It is the seventh-brightest asteroid with a meanoppositionmagnitude of +8.7.[9] Flora can reach a magnitude of +8.1 at a favorable opposition nearperihelion, such as occurred in November 2020 when it was 0.88 AU (132 million km; 340 LD) from Earth.[10]
The name Flora was proposed byJohn Herschel, fromFlora, theLatin goddess of flowers and gardens, wife ofZephyrus (thepersonification of the West wind), and mother of Spring. The Greek equivalent isChloris, who has her own asteroid,410 Chloris, but in Greek 8 Flora is also called 8 Chloris (8 Χλωρίς).[citation needed]The old iconic symbol for 8 Flora has been variously rendered as,, etc. It is in the pipeline forUnicode 17.0 as U+1CEC2 ().[11][12]
The orbit of 8 Flora compared with the orbits of Earth, Mars and JupiterSize comparison: the first 10 asteroids profiled against Earth'sMoon. Flora is third from the right.
Lightcurve analysis indicates that Flora's pole points towardsecliptic coordinates (β, λ) = (16°, 160°) with a 10° uncertainty.[5] This gives anaxial tilt of 78°, plus or minus ten degrees.
Flora is the parent body of theFlora family of asteroids, and by far the largest member, comprising about 80% of the total mass of this family. Nevertheless, Flora was almost certainly disrupted by the impact(s) that formed the family, and is probably a gravitational aggregate of most of the pieces.[citation needed]
Flora'sspectrum indicates that its surface composition is a mixture ofsilicate rock (includingpyroxene andolivine) andnickel-iron metal. Flora, and the wholeFlora family generally, are good candidates for being the parent bodies of theL chondrite meteorites.[13] This meteorite type comprises 35% of meteorites impacting theEarth.[14]
During an observation on 25 March 1917, 8 Flora was mistaken for the 15th-magnitude starTU Leonis, which led to that star's classification as aU Geminorum cataclysmic variable star.[15] Flora had come to opposition on 1917 February 13, 40 days earlier.[15] This mistake was uncovered only in 1995.[15][16]
On 26 July 2013, Flora at magnitude 8.8 occulted the star 2UCAC 22807162 over parts of South America, Africa, and Asia.[17]
^abcdefgP. Vernazza et al. (2021) VLT/SPHERE imaging survey of the largest main-belt asteroids: Final results and synthesis.Astronomy & Astrophysics 54, A56
^abJames Baer, Steven Chesley & Robert Matson (2011) "Astrometric masses of 26 asteroids and observations on asteroid porosity."The Astronomical Journal, Volume 141, Number 5
^Binsel, Richard P.; Gehrels, Tom and Matthews, Mildred Shapley (editors);Asteroids II; published 1989 by University of Arizona Press; pp. 1038-1040.ISBN0-8165-1123-3
^Grady, Monica (2022)."Meteorites".The Catalogue of Meteorites. Natural History Museum.doi:10.5519/tqfuwle7. Retrieved28 May 2020.
^abcSchmadel, L. D.; Schmeer, P.; Börngen, F. (August 1996). "TU Leonis = (8) Flora: the non-existence of a U Geminorum star".Astron. Astrophys.312: 496.Bibcode:1996A&A...312..496S.
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