1130 Skuld, provisional designation1929 RC, is a stony Florianasteroid from the inner regions of theasteroid belt, approximately 10 kilometers in diameter. It was named afterSkuld from Norse mythology.[2]
It was first identified asA906 VC at Heidelberg in 1906, extending the asteroid'sobservation arc by 23 years prior to its official discovery observation.[11]
Skuld is a member of theFlora family, one of the largest groups of stonyS-type asteroids in the main-belt. It orbits the Sun in theinner main-belt at a distance of 1.8–2.7 AU once every 3 years and 4 months (1,215 days). Its orbit has aneccentricity of 0.20 and aninclination of 2° with respect to theecliptic.[1]
In January 2004, the first rotationallightcurves ofSkuld were obtained by Henk de Groot and by a group of Polish and French astronomers. Lightcurve analysis gave arotation period of 4.73 and 4.8079 hours with a brightness variation of 0.46 and 0.40magnitude, respectively (U=2+/3-).[8][10]
In 2009 and 2011, astronomers Robert Buchheim andLarry Robinson obtained two well-defined lightcurves from photometric observations. They gave a refined period of 4.810 and 4.807 hours with an amplitude of 0.50 and 0.26 magnitude, respectively (U=3/3).[9][a]
According to the surveys carried out by the JapaneseAkari satellite and NASA'sWide-field Infrared Survey Explorer with its subsequentNEOWISE mission,Skuld measures between 9.63 and 11.009 kilometers in diameter and its surface has analbedo between 0.1995 and 0.302.[4][5][6][7] TheCollaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link assumes an albedo of 0.24 – derived from8 Flora, the largest member and namesake of this orbital family – and calculates a diameter of 9.99 kilometers with anabsolute magnitude of 12.17.[3]
^abcdUsui, Fumihiko; Kuroda, Daisuke; Müller, Thomas G.; Hasegawa, Sunao; Ishiguro, Masateru; Ootsubo, Takafumi; et al. (October 2011). "Asteroid Catalog Using Akari: AKARI/IRC Mid-Infrared Asteroid Survey".Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan.63 (5):1117–1138.Bibcode:2011PASJ...63.1117U.doi:10.1093/pasj/63.5.1117. (online,AcuA catalog p. 153)