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279 Thule
Classification: Outer Main-belt Asteroid          SPK-ID: 2000279
[ Ephemeris | Orbit Diagram | Orbital Elements | Physical Parameters | Discovery Circumstances | Close-Approach Data ]

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Orbit Diagram
Note: Make sure you have Java enabled on your browser to see the applet. This applet is provided as a 3D orbit visualization tool. The applet was implemented using 2-body methods, and hence should not be used for determining accurate long-term trajectories (over several years or decades) or planetary encounter circumstances. For accurate long-term ephemerides, please instead use our Horizons system.
Orbit Viewer

Additional Notes: the orbits shown in the applet are color coded. The planets are white lines, and the asteroid/comet is a blue line. The bright white line indicates the portion of the orbit that is above the ecliptic plane, and the darker portion is below the ecliptic plane. Likewise for the asteroid/comet orbit, the light blue indicates the portion above the ecliptic plane, and the dark blue the portion below the ecliptic plane.

Orbit Viewer applet originally written and kindly provided by Osamu Ajiki (AstroArts), and further modified by Ron Baalke (JPL).


Orbital Elements at Epoch 2456400.5 (2013-Apr-18.0) TDB
Reference: JPL 9 (heliocentric ecliptic J2000)
 Element Value Uncertainty (1-sigma)   Units 
e .008489915035892913 5.768e-08  
a 4.281497012873012 4.1905e-08 AU
q 4.245147467007291 2.6008e-07 AU
i 2.337493282329082 4.4735e-06 deg
node 73.62828870637929 0.00017056 deg
peri 69.40980590860957 0.00034895 deg
M 263.2917217315302 0.00030641 deg
tp 2457269.766705354874
(2015-Sep-04.26670535)		 0.0027531 JED
period 3235.876178655768
8.86		 4.7506e-05
1.301e-07		 d
yr
n .1112527118233397 1.6333e-09 deg/d
Q 4.317846558738733 4.2261e-08 AU
   Orbit Determination Parameters
   # obs. used (total)      1417  
   data-arc span      40483 days (110.84 yr)  
   first obs. used      1902-04-07  
   last obs. used      2013-02-06  
   planetary ephem.      DE405  
   SB-pert. ephem.      SB405-CPV-2  
   condition code      0  
   fit RMS      .61517  
   data source      ORB  
   producer      Otto Matic  
   solution date      2013-Mar-29 14:43:23  

Additional Information
 Earth MOID = 3.25647 AU 
 T_jup = 3.028 
[ show covariance matrix ]

[ Ephemeris | Orbit Diagram | Orbital Elements | Physical Parameters | Discovery Circumstances | Close-Approach Data ]

Physical Parameter Table
Parameter Symbol Value Units Sigma Reference Notes
absolute magnitude H 8.57 mag n/a IRAS-A-FPA-3-RDR-IMPS-V6.0 IRAS observations used: 9
diameter diameter 126.59 km 3.7 IRAS-A-FPA-3-RDR-IMPS-V6.0 IRAS observations used: 9
rotation period rot_per 15.962 h n/a Asteroid Lightcurve DataBase (Rev. 2013-May-01) Result based on less than full coverage, so that the period may be wrong by 30 percent or so.
Published Reference List:
[Warner, B.D.; Harris, A.W.; Coley, D.; Allen, B.; Higgins, D. (2010) Minor Planet Bul. 37, 168-169.]
geometric albedo albedo 0.0412   0.003 IRAS-A-FPA-3-RDR-IMPS-V6.0 IRAS observations used: 9
B-V BV .746 mag .049 EAR-A-5-DDR-UBV-MEAN-VALUES-V1.1 #obs=6; phase (min.=7.15, mean=11.21, max.=13.24) deg.
U-B UB .232 mag .044 EAR-A-5-DDR-UBV-MEAN-VALUES-V1.1 #obs=5; phase (min.=9.92, mean=12.02, max.=13.24) deg.
Tholen spectral type spec_T D   n/a EAR-A-5-DDR-TAXONOMY-V4.0 used 7 color indices; used ground-based radiometric albedo
SMASSII spectral type spec_B X   n/a EAR-A-5-DDR-TAXONOMY-V4.0 based on a high-resolution spectrum by Xu et al. (1995) or Bus and Binzel (2002)

279 Thule          Discovered 1888-Oct-25 by Palisa, J. at Vienna
Reference: DISCOVERY.DBLast Updated: 2003-08-29

[ show close-approach data ]
Alternate Designations
 1927 EC = 1954 FF = A920 GA = A923 RA 
[ Ephemeris | Orbit Diagram | Orbital Elements | Physical Parameters | Discovery Circumstances | Close-Approach Data ]
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