 Lightcurve-base 3D-model of 234 Barbara. | |
| Discovery | |
|---|---|
| Discovered by | C. H. F. Peters |
| Discovery date | 12 August 1883 |
| Designations | |
| (234) Barbara | |
Named after | Saint Barbara? |
| A883 PA,1942 RL1 1953 RE,1975 XP | |
| Main belt | |
| Orbital characteristics[1] | |
| Epoch 31 July 2016 (JD 2457600.5) | |
| Uncertainty parameter 0 | |
| Observation arc | 131.26 yr (47944 d) |
| Aphelion | 2.97153 AU (444.535 Gm) |
| Perihelion | 1.79939 AU (269.185 Gm) |
| 2.38546 AU (356.860 Gm) | |
| Eccentricity | 0.24569 |
| 3.68yr (1345.7d) | |
Averageorbital speed | 19.28 km/s |
| 16.9454° | |
| 0° 16m 3.05s / day | |
| Inclination | 15.3746° |
| 144.553° | |
| 192.344° | |
| Physical characteristics | |
| Dimensions | 43.75±1.0 km[1] 45.62 ± 1.93 km[2] |
| Mass | (0.44 ± 1.45) × 1018 kg[2] |
| 26.4744 h (1.10310 d) | |
| 0.2276±0.011 | |
| S | |
| 9.02 | |
234 Barbara is amain beltasteroid that was discovered by German-American astronomerChristian Heinrich Friedrich Peters on August 12, 1883, inClinton, New York. The object is orbiting theSun with asemimajor axis of2.385 AU, aperiod of 3.68 years, and aneccentricity of 0.25. Theorbital plane is inclined by 15.37° to theplane of the ecliptic. It is classified as a stonyS-type asteroid based upon its spectrum. Themean diameter of this object is estimated as 45.6 km.[2] It has a rotation rate of 26.5 hours, or a little over a day. It is possibly named forSaint Barbara,patron saint ofmathematicians.[3][4]
Observations oflight curves and stellaroccultations suggest the surface exhibits large concave areas.[5]Polarimetric study of this asteroid reveals anomalous properties that suggests theregolith consists of a mixture of low and highalbedo material. This may have been caused by fragmentation of an asteroidsubstrate with the spectral properties of CO3/CV3carbonaceous chondrites.[6] It is the prototype for a class of asteroids called "Barbarians" that display a strong infrared absorption band at 2μm, which is a characteristic of anFeO–enrichedspinel mineral. Multiple other examples of this class have since been discovered.[7]
Observations made in 2009 withESO'sVery Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI) suggested that 234 Barbara may be abinary asteroid,[8] although a paper published in 2015 states that "the VLTI observations can be explained without the presence of a large satellite".[5]
