8 Flora
Flora (minor planet designation: 8 Flora) is a large, bright main-belt asteroid. It is the innermost large asteroid: no asteroid closer to the Sun has a diameter above 25 kilometres (20% that of Flora), and not until 20-km 149 Medusa was discovered was an asteroid known to orbit at a closer mean distance. It is the seventh-brightest asteroid with a mean opposition magnitude of +8.7. Flora can reach a magnitude of +8.1 at a favorable opposition near perihelion, such as occurred in November 2020 when it was 0.88 AU (132 million km; 340 LD) from Earth.
| Discovery | |
|---|---|
| Discovered by | J.R. Hind |
| Discovery date | 18 October 1847 |
| Designations | |
| (8) Flora | |
| Pronunciation | /ˈflɔːrə/ |
Named after | Flōra |
| Main belt (Flora family) | |
| Adjectives | Florian /ˈflɔːriən/ |
| Symbol | (historical) |
| Orbital characteristics | |
| Epoch 13 September 2023 (JD 2453300.5) | |
| Aphelion | 2.55 AU (381 million km) |
| Perihelion | 1.86 AU (278 million km) |
| 2.20 AU (329 million km) | |
| Eccentricity | 0.15650 |
| 3.27 yr (1192.84 d) | |
| 317.3° | |
| Inclination | 5.889° |
| 110.87° | |
| 1 February 2024 | |
| 285.6° | |
| Earth MOID | 0.87 AU (130 million km) |
| Proper orbital elements | |
Proper semi-major axis | 2.2014 AU |
Proper eccentricity | 0.1449 |
Proper inclination | 5.574° |
Proper mean motion | 110.2 deg / yr |
Proper orbital period | 3.26679 yr (1193.194 d) |
Precession of perihelion | 32.017 arcsec / yr |
Precession of the ascending node | −35.51 arcsec / yr |
| Physical characteristics | |
| Dimensions | c/a = 0.82±0.05 136 km × 136 km × 113 km 145 km × 145 km × 120 km |
Mean diameter | 146±2 km 128 km |
| Mass | (4±1.6)×1018 kg (6.62±0.84)×1018 kg |
Mean density | 2.4±1.0 g/cm3 3.04±1.39 g/cm3 |
| 0.533 d (12.799 h) | |
| 0.224 (calculated) 0.243 | |
| S | |
| 7.9 to 11.6 | |
| 6.49 | |
| 0.21" to 0.053" | |
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