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. 
== Observational mishap ==
During an observation on 25 March 1917, 8 Flora was mistaken for the 15th-magnitude star TU Leonis, which led to that star's classification as a U Geminorum cataclysmic variable star. Flora had come to opposition on 1917 February 13, 40 days earlier. This mistake was uncovered only in 1995. 
Category:Asteroids
Category:Geoasteroid
Category:S type
Category:Main Belt
Category:Objects Not in Hydrostatic Equilibrium
Category:Objects with No Atmosphere
Category:Inner Solar System Object
Category:Numbered Objects
Category:Numbered Minor Planets
Category:Named Objects
Category:Named Minor Planets