| Discovery[1] | |
|---|---|
| Discovered by | M. F. Wolf |
| Discovery site | Heidelberg Obs. |
| Discovery date | 22 October 1900 |
| Designations | |
| (461) Saskia | |
| Pronunciation | German:[ˈzaski.aː][2] |
Named after | Saskia van Uylenburgh[3] (wife of Rembrandt) |
| 1900 FP · 1935 CT A917 XE · A924 DB | |
| main-belt[1][4] · (outer) Themis[5][6] | |
| Orbital characteristics[4] | |
| Epoch 23 March 2018 (JD 2458200.5) | |
| Uncertainty parameter 0 | |
| Observation arc | 117.58yr (42,946 d) |
| Aphelion | 3.5621AU |
| Perihelion | 2.6834 AU |
| 3.1227 AU | |
| Eccentricity | 0.1407 |
| 5.52 yr (2,016 d) | |
| 71.934° | |
| 0° 10m 42.96s / day | |
| Inclination | 1.4634° |
| 157.03° | |
| 305.17° | |
| Physical characteristics | |
| 39.81±13.20 km[7] 43.10±1.05 km[8] 43.603±0.256 km[9][10] 44.1±4.4 km[11] | |
| 7.348 h[12][13] | |
| 0.06[7][11] 0.069[8] 0.112[9] | |
| Tholen =FCX[4][14] X(S3OS2)[5][15] B–V =0.610±028[4] U–B =0.310±014[4] | |
| 10.48[1][4][8][9][11][16] 10.63[7] | |
461 Saskia, provisional designation1900 FP, is aThemistian asteroid from the outer regions of theasteroid belt, approximately 44 kilometers (27 miles) in diameter. It was discovered on 22 October 1900, by German astronomerMax Wolf at theHeidelberg Observatory in southwest Germany.[1] TheX-type asteroid has arotation period of 7.3 hours.[14] It was named after Rembrandt's wife,Saskia van Uylenburgh.[3]
Saskia is a core member of the carbonaceousThemis family (602),[5][6] one of the largestasteroid families named after24 Themis.[17] It orbits the Sun in theouter asteroid belt at a distance of 2.7–3.6 AU once every 5 years and 6 months (2,016 days;semi-major axis of 3.12 AU). Its orbit has aneccentricity of 0.14 and aninclination of 1° with respect to theecliptic.[4] The body'sobservation arc begins at Heidelberg the night after its official discovery observation.[1]
Thisminor planet was named afterSaskia van Uylenburgh (1612–1642), wife of renowned Dutch painterRembrandt(4511 Rembrandt). The official naming citation was mentioned inThe Names of the Minor Planets byPaul Herget in 1955 (H 50).[3]
In theTholen classification, this asteroid'sspectral type is ambiguous, closest to a darkF-type asteroid, and somewhat similar to that of aC- andX-type (FCX),[4] while in both the Tholen- and SMASS-like taxonomy of theSmall Solar System Objects Spectroscopic Survey (S3OS2),Saskia is anX-type asteroid.[5][15] It has also been characterized as a primitiveP-type asteroid by theWide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE).[14][16]
In April 2007, a rotationallightcurve ofSaskia was obtained fromphotometric observations by French amateur astronomerPierre Antonini. Lightcurve analysis gave a well-definedrotation period of7.348±0.001 hours with a brightness variation of 0.36magnitude (U=3).[12][14] In December 2016, an identical period with an amplitude of 0.28 magnitude was determined by Daniel Klinglesmith at Etscorn Campus Observatory (719), New Mexico (U=3-).[13] This result supersedes two previous observations that gave a period of 7.34 and 7.349 hours, respectively (U=2/3-).[18][19]
According to the survey carried out by theNEOWISE mission of NASA's WISE telescope,Saskia measures between 39.8 and 44.1 kilometers in diameter and its surface has analbedo between 0.06 and 0.112,[7][9][10][11] while the JapaneseAkari satellite determined a diameter of 43.10 kilometers with an albedo of 0.069.[8] TheCollaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link assumes an albedo of 0.10 and derives a smaller diameter of 33.69 kilometers based on anabsolute magnitude of 10.48.[14]
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