| Discovery[1] | |
|---|---|
| Discovered by | J. H. Metcalf |
| Discovery site | Taunton Obs. |
| Discovery date | 6 April 1908 |
| Designations | |
| (755) Quintilla | |
| Pronunciation | /kwɪnˈtɪlə/[2] |
Named after | Quintilla (Italian first name)[3] |
| A908 GC · 1933 UF 1908 CZ | |
| Orbital characteristics[4] | |
| Epoch 31 May 2020 (JD 2459000.5) | |
| Uncertainty parameter 0 | |
| Observation arc | 104.66yr (38,226 d) |
| Aphelion | 3.6182AU |
| Perihelion | 2.7446 AU |
| 3.1814 AU | |
| Eccentricity | 0.1373 |
| 5.67 yr (2,073 d) | |
| 294.13° | |
| 0° 10m 25.32s / day | |
| Inclination | 3.2423° |
| 176.67° | |
| 43.965° | |
| Physical characteristics | |
| 4.552 h[12][13][14][15] | |
755 Quintilla (prov. designation:A908 GCor1908 CZ) is a metallicbackground asteroid from the outer regions of theasteroid belt, approximately 36 kilometers (22 miles) in diameter. It was discovered on 6 April 1908, by American astronomerJoel Metcalf at the Taunton Observatory (803) in Massachusetts, United States.[1] For its size, theM-type asteroid has a relatively shortrotation period of 4.55 hours. It was namedQuintilla, an Italian female first name, for no reason other than being the first asteroid name beginning with the letter"Q".[3]
Quintilla is a non-family asteroid of the main belt'sbackground population when applying thehierarchical clustering method to itsproper orbital elements.[5][6][7] It orbits the Sun in theouter asteroid belt at a distance of 2.7–3.6 AU once every 5 years and 8 months (2,073 days;semi-major axis of 3.18 AU). Its orbit has aneccentricity of 0.14 and aninclination of 3° with respect to theecliptic.[4] The body'sobservation arc begins atVienna Observatory on 1 September 1915, almost 7 years after its official discovery observation byJoel Metcalf at Taunton.[1]
Thisminor planet was namedQuintilla, a name of an Italian first name, that was proposed by Arville D. Walker, secretary to the American astronomer and director of Harvard ObservatoryHarlow Shapley (1885–1972), as no other asteroid name began with the letter"Q" when it was named in 1926. Thenaming was mentioned inThe Names of the Minor Planets byPaul Herget in 1955 (H 76).[3]
In theTholen classification,Quintilla is a metallicM-type asteroid.[4]
Several rotationallightcurves ofQuintilla were obtained fromphotometric observations. Analysis of the best-rated lightcurves by Robert K. Buchheim andDonald Pray (2004),Laurent Bernasconi,Reiner Stoss, Petra Korlević, Maja Hren, Aleksandar Cikota, Ljuban Jerosimic, andRaoul Behrend (2005), as well asJoseph Masiero (2006), gave a well-definedrotation period of (4.552±0.001), (4.5516±0.0002) and (4.552±0.002) hours with a brightness variation of (0.38±0.02), (0.08±0.01) and (0.45±0.2)magnitude, respectively (U=3/3/3).[12][13][14] In November 2018, Michael and Matthew Fauerbach obtained a period of (4.552±0.002) hours and an amplitude of (0.16±0.02) magnitude (U=2).[15]
According to the surveys carried out by the JapaneseAkari satellite, the Infrared Astronomical SatelliteIRAS, and theNEOWISE mission of NASA'sWide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE),Quintilla measures (31.32±1.20), (36.04±2.1) and (41.210±0.655) kilometers in diameter and its surface has analbedo of (0.220±0.019), (0.1621±0.021) and (0.124±0.012), respectively.[8][9][10][11]
Alternative mean-diameter measurements published by the WISE team include (46.09±5.63 km) and (49.868±0.660 km) with corresponding albedos of (0.083±0.387) and (0.0848±0.0103).[6][16] TheCollaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link derives an albedo of 0.1781 and a diameter of 36.16 kilometers based on anabsolute magnitude of 9.7.[16]
