| Discovery[1] | |
|---|---|
| Discovered by | A. Kopff |
| Discovery site | Heidelberg Obs. |
| Discovery date | 23 July 1908 |
| Designations | |
| (666) Desdemona | |
| Pronunciation | /dɛzdɪˈmoʊnə/[2] |
Named after | Desdemona (character inOthello)[3] |
| 1908 DM | |
| main-belt · (middle) | |
| Orbital characteristics[1] | |
| Epoch 16 February 2017 (JD 2457800.5) | |
| Uncertainty parameter 0 | |
| Observation arc | 107.90 yr (39,410 days) |
| Aphelion | 3.2102AU |
| Perihelion | 1.9755 AU |
| 2.5928 AU | |
| Eccentricity | 0.2381 |
| 4.18yr (1,525 days) | |
| 309.91° | |
| 0° 14m 9.96s / day | |
| Inclination | 7.5856° |
| 215.41° | |
| 174.16° | |
| Physical characteristics | |
| Dimensions | 27.04±1.0 km(IRAS:17)[4] 27.22 km(derived)[5] 27.37±0.71 km[6] 31.485±0.116 km[7] 32.74±0.37 km[8] |
| 13.52±0.5km | |
| 9.6h[9][a] 14.607±0.004 h[10] 15.45±0.01 h[11] | |
| 0.095±0.015[8] 0.1026±0.0207[7] 0.105±0.006[6] 0.1055±0.008(IRAS:17)[4] 0.1372(derived)[5] | |
| S[5] | |
| 10.6[1][5][7][8] · 10.90[4][6] | |
666 Desdemona is a stonyasteroid from the middle region of theasteroid belt, approximately 29 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 23 July 1908, by German astronomerAugust Kopff atHeidelberg Observatory in southern Germany, and named afterDesdemona, character in Shakespeare'sThe Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice. The name may have been inspired by the asteroid's provisional designation1908 DM.[3][12]
Desdemona is a stonyS-type asteroid that orbits the Sun in themiddle main-belt at a distance of 2.0–3.2 AU once every 4 years and 2 months (1,525 days). Its orbit has aneccentricity of 0.24 and aninclination of 8° with respect to theecliptic.[1] As noprecoveries were taken, the asteroid'sobservation arc begins with its official discovery observation at Heidelberg.[12]
In 2013, a rotationallightcurve for this asteroid was obtained from photometric observations made by astronomer Anna Marciniak atPoznań Observatory, Poland. It gave arotation period of14.607±0.004 hours with a brightness variation of 0.22 inmagnitude (U=2+),[10] superseding a period from in 2000, obtained at the CalifornianSantana Observatory (646), which gave a slightly longer period of15.45±0.01 hours and an amplitude of 0.11 (U=2).[11]
Between 2004 and 2006, three more lightcurves were constructed from photometric observations, but they were all fragmentary and based on results with less than full coverage (U=2-/1+/2-).[9][a]
According to the surveys carried out by the Infrared Astronomical SatelliteIRAS, the JapaneseAkari satellite, and NASA'sWide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) with its subsequentNEOWISE mission, the asteroid's surface has analbedo between 0.095 and 0.106. While theCollaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link agrees with the space-based IRAS and Akari surveys on a diameter of approximately 27 kilometers, the results from WISE and NEOWISE found a larger diameter of 31.5 to 32.7 kilometers, respectively.[4][5][6][7][8]
Thisminor planet was named afterDesdemona, the wife ofOthello in the playThe Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice written by William Shakespeare in 1604(also see2985 Shakespeare). It is presumed that the naming of "Desdemona" could have been inspired by the two letters of its provisional designation (1908 DM). One of thesatellites of Uranus (Uranus X), discovered by theVoyager 2 in 1986, is also namedDesdemona (H 68).[3]
