| Discovery[1] | |
|---|---|
| Discovered by | M. F. Wolf |
| Discovery site | Heidelberg Obs. |
| Discovery date | 19 March 1931 |
| Designations | |
| (1179) Mally | |
Named after | Mally Wolf (discoverer's daughter-in-law)[2] |
| 1931 FD | |
| main-belt · (middle)[3] | |
| Orbital characteristics[1] | |
| Epoch 4 September 2017 (JD 2458000.5) | |
| Uncertainty parameter 0 | |
| Observation arc | 86.30 yr (31,520 days) |
| Aphelion | 3.0682AU |
| Perihelion | 2.1698 AU |
| 2.6190 AU | |
| Eccentricity | 0.1715 |
| 4.24yr (1,548 days) | |
| 104.44° | |
| 0° 13m 57s / day | |
| Inclination | 8.7067° |
| 6.8116° | |
| 234.15° | |
| Physical characteristics | |
| Dimensions | 10.65 km(calculated)[3] 11.20±0.83 km[4] 13.159±0.183 km[5] 13.379±0.077 km[6] 14.41±0.47 km[7] 16.60±5.64 km[8] |
| 46.6917±0.1516h[9] | |
| 0.059±0.020[7] 0.0683±0.0080[6] 0.07±0.09[8] 0.071±0.017[5] 0.097±0.015[4] 0.10(assumed)[3] | |
| S/C[3] | |
| 12.530±0.002(R)[9] · 12.70[8] · 12.8[1] · 12.9[4][6][7] · 12.98[3] | |
1179 Mally, provisional designation1931 FD, is anasteroid and long-lost minor planet from the central region of theasteroid belt, approximately 13 kilometers in diameter. Discovered byMax Wolf in 1931, the asteroid was lost until its rediscovery in 1986. The discoverer named it after his daughter-in-law, Mally Wolf.
Mally was discovered on 19 March 1931, by German astronomerMax Wolf atHeidelberg Observatory in southwest Germany.[10]
Soon after its initial discovery, it became one of few well knownlost minor planets for over 55 years. In 1986,Mally was rediscovered by astronomersLutz Schmadel,Richard Martin West andHans-Emil Schuster, who remeasured the original discovery plates and computed alternative searchephemerides. This allowed them to find the body very near to its predicted position. In addition, historicphotographic plates from thePalomar Sky Survey (1956–1958), theUK Schmidt Telescope (Australia), and theESO Schmidt Telescope (Chile) confirmed the rediscovery.[11][12][13]
Mally orbits the Sun in thecentral main-belt at a distance of 2.2–3.1 AU once every 4 years and 3 months (1,548 days). Its orbit has aneccentricity of 0.17 and aninclination of 9° with respect to theecliptic.[1] The body'sobservation arc begins with its official discovery observation at Heidelberg in 1931.[10]
According to the surveys carried out by the JapaneseAkari satellite and theNEOWISE mission of NASA'sWide-field Infrared Survey Explorer,Mally measures between 11.20 and 16.60 kilometers in diameter, and its surface has analbedo between 0.059 and 0.097.[4][5][6][7][8]
TheCollaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link assumes an albedo of 0.10 – a compromise value between the brighterstony (0.20) and darkercarbonaceous asteroids (0.057) used for bodies with asemi-major axis between 2.6 and 2.7 AU – and calculates a diameter of 10.7 kilometers based on anabsolute magnitude of 12.98.[3]
In September 2013, a rotationallightcurve ofMally was obtained from photometric observations taken at thePalomar Transient Factory in California. The fragmentary lightcurve gave a longer than averagerotation period of 46.6 hours with a brightness variation of 0.08 magnitude.[9] However, the obtained result is poorly rated by CALL (U=1).[3]
Thisminor planet was named after Mally Wolf, wife of Franz Wolf and the discoverer's daughter-in-law. The official naming citation was published byPaul Herget inThe Names of the Minor Planets in 1955 (H 110).[2]
