[en]

266 Aline
Discovery
Discovered by	Johann Palisa
Discovery date	17 May 1887
Designations
MPC designation	(266) Aline
Alternative designations	A887 KA
Minor planet category	Main belt
Orbital characteristics
	Epoch 31 July 2016 (JD 2457600.5)
	Uncertainty parameter 0
Observation arc	124.91 yr (45623 d)
Aphelion	3.24229 AU (485.040 Gm)
Perihelion	2.36559 AU (353.887 Gm)
Semi-major axis	2.80394 AU (419.463 Gm)
Eccentricity	0.15633
Orbital period (sidereal)	4.70 yr (1715.0 d)
Average orbital speed	17.79 km/s
Mean anomaly	53.2036°
Mean motion	0° 12m 35.708s / day
Inclination	13.3989°
Longitude of ascending node	235.904°
Argument of perihelion	150.489°
Physical characteristics
Dimensions	109.09±2.9 km; 107.95 ± 6.62 km
Mass	(4.15 ± 0.42) × 1018 kg
Mean density	6.29 ± 1.32 g/cm3
Synodic rotation period	13.018 h (0.5424 d); 13.02 h
Geometric albedo	0.0448±0.003
Spectral type	C
Absolute magnitude (H)	8.80

266 Aline is a fairly large main belt asteroid that was discovered by Johann Palisa on 17 May 1887 in Vienna and is thought to have been named after the daughter of astronomer Edmund Weiss. It is a dark C-type asteroid and is probably composed of primitive carbonaceous material. 266 Aline is orbiting close to a 5:2 mean motion resonance with Jupiter, which is located at 2.824 AU.^[4]

Photometric observations made in 2012 at the Organ Mesa Observatory in Las Cruces, New Mexico, produced a light curve with a period of 13.018 ± 0.001 hours and a brightness variation of 0.10 ± 0.01 in magnitude.^[3]

In 2001, the asteroid was detected by radar from the Arecibo Observatory at a distance of 1.41 AU. The resulting data yielded an effective diameter of 109 ± 15 km.^[5]

References

^ ^a ^b ^c “266 Aline”. JPL Small-Body Database. NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Retrieved 11 May 2016.
^ ^a ^b ^c Carry, B. (December 2012), “Density of asteroids”, Planetary and Space Science, vol. 73, pp. 98–118, arXiv:1203.4336, Bibcode:2012P&SS…73…98C, doi:10.1016/j.pss.2012.03.009. See Table 1.
^ ^a ^b Pilcher, Frederick (July 2012), “Rotation Period Determinations for 46 Hestia, 223 Rosa, 225 Henrietta, 266 Aline, 750 Oskar, and 765 Mattiaca”, The Minor Planet Bulletin, vol. 39, no. 3, pp. 171–173, Bibcode:2012MPBu…39..171P.
^ Hahn, G.; et al. (June 1991), “Orbital evolution studies of asteroids near the 5:2 mean motion resonance with Jupiter”, Astronomy and Astrophysics, 246 (2): 603–618, Bibcode:1991A&A…246..603H.
^ Magri, Christopher; et al. (January 2007), “A radar survey of main-belt asteroids: Arecibo observations of 55 objects during 1999 2003” (PDF), Icarus, 186 (1): 126–151, Bibcode:2007Icar..186..126M, doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2006.08.018, retrieved 14 April 2015.