| Discovery[1] | |
|---|---|
| Discovered by | K. Reinmuth |
| Discovery site | Heidelberg Obs. |
| Discovery date | 7 December 1926 |
| Designations | |
| (1078) Mentha | |
| Pronunciation | /ˈmɛnθə/[2] |
Named after | Mentha(flowering plant)[3] |
| 1926 XB& · 1951 CF1 1952 LD · A917 CB[4] A924 EP | |
| main-belt · (inner)[5] background[6] | |
| Orbital characteristics[1] | |
| Epoch 4 September 2017 (JD 2458000.5) | |
| Uncertainty parameter 0 | |
| Observation arc | 93.66 yr (34,208 days) |
| Aphelion | 2.5832AU |
| Perihelion | 1.9555 AU |
| 2.2693 AU | |
| Eccentricity | 0.1383 |
| 3.42yr (1,249 days) | |
| 142.04° | |
| 0° 17m 17.88s / day | |
| Inclination | 7.3716° |
| 93.851° | |
| 43.568° | |
| Physical characteristics | |
| Dimensions | 9.94±0.28 km[7] 12.619±0.242 km[8] 13.59±3.01 km[9] 13.660±0.134 km[10] 13.675 km[11] 13.68 km(taken)[5] 15.37±2.11 km[12] |
| 82.870±0.2341h[13] 85±2 h[14] | |
| 0.126±0.259[12] 0.1641[11] 0.1819±0.0375[10] 0.262±0.041[8] 0.31±0.18[9] 0.343±0.020[7] | |
| Tholen =S[1][5] B–V = 0.889[1] U–B = 0.490[1] | |
| 11.33±0.11[15] · 11.455±0.002(R)[13] · 11.60[9] · 11.80[1][7][10] · 11.9[5] · 11.9±0.2[11][14] · 11.94[12] | |
1078 Mentha, provisional designation1926 XB, is a stony backgroundasteroid from the inner regions of theasteroid belt, approximately 13 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 7 December 1926, by astronomerKarl Reinmuth at theHeidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory in southwest Germany.[16] Only in 1958, it was realized that this object was a rediscovery of an already numbered butlost asteroid (864 Aase).[4]
The asteroid was named after the flowering plant of the mint family,Mentha.[3] It has a longer-than averagespin rate of 85 hours and possibly an irregular, elongated shape.[5]
Sometimes, discovered objects turn out to be a rediscovery of a previouslylost minor planet. This can be determined by calculating the "new" object's orbit (once it is firmly known) backwards and checking its past positions against those previously recorded for the lost object. Nowadays these identities between two objects are found before they are numbered.
In 1958, however, French astronomerAndré Patry atNice Observatory found such identity betweenMentha,1926 XB, and the lost minor planet864 Aase,A917 CB, which had never been re-observed after its discovery byMax Wolf in 1917.[4] Since it was realized thatMentha andAase were one and the same object, theMinor Planet Center resolved this conflict by keeping everything associated with "1078 Mentha", adding the two oppositional observations by Max Wolf from 1917, and completely vacated "864 Aase", reusing its name and number for another, unrelated discovery made by Reinmuth.[17]
Mentha is a non-family asteroid of the main belt'sbackground population.[6] It orbits the Sun in theinner asteroid belt at a distance of 2.0–2.6 AU once every 3 years and 5 months (1,249 days;semi-major axis of 2.27 AU). Its orbit has aneccentricity of 0.14 and aninclination of 7° with respect to theecliptic.[1]
The asteroid was first observed asA917 CB at Heidelberg in February 1907 (which is the original discovery of864 Aase, before vacated). The body'sobservation arc begins atSimeiz Observatory in March 1924, almost four years prior to its official discovery observation at Heidelberg.[16]
In theTholen classification,Mentha is a common stonyS-type asteroid.[1][5]
In February 1989, a first rotationallightcurve ofMentha was obtained from photometric observations by Polish astronomerWiesław Wiśniewski. Lightcurve analysis gave a well-definedrotation period of 85 hours with a brightness variation of 0.87magnitude (U=3).[14] In February 2013, a similar period of 82.870 hours with an amplitude of 0.65 magnitude was measured by astronomers at thePalomar Transient Factory in California (U=2).[13] A high brightness amplitude is typically indicative for an elongated rather than spherical shape. Its long period is close to that ofslow rotators.
According to the surveys carried out by the JapaneseAkari satellite and theNEOWISE mission of NASA'sWide-field Infrared Survey Explorer,Mentha measures between 9.94 and 15.37 kilometers in diameter and its surface has analbedo between 0.126 and 0.343.[7][8][9][10][11][12]
TheCollaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link agrees withPetr Pravec's revised WISE data and takes an albedo of 0.1641 and a diameter of 13.68 kilometers based on anabsolute magnitude of 11.9.[5]
Thisminor planet was named afterMentha, a flowering herb of themint family.[3] The official naming citation was mentioned inThe Names of the Minor Planets byPaul Herget in 1955 (H 102).[3]
Due to his many discoveries,Karl Reinmuth submitted a large list of 66 newly named asteroids in the early 1930s. The list covered his discoveries with numbers between(1009) and(1200). This list also contained a sequence of 28 asteroids, starting with1054 Forsytia, that were all named after plants, in particularflowering plants(also see list of minor planets named after animals and plants).[18]
