43 Ariadne

43 Ariadne is a fairly big and bright main belt asteroid. It is the second-biggest member of the Flora asteroid family. It was found by N. R. Pogson on April 15, 1857 and named after the Greek heroine Ariadne.

 Characteristics 
Ariadne is very stretched out (almost twice as long as its smallest shape). It is a retrograde rotator, although its pole points almost parallel to the ecliptic towards ecliptic coordinates (β, λ) = (-15°, 235°) with a 10° uncertainty[2]. This gives an axial tilt of about 105°.

 Trivia 
 For reasons unknown, "Asteroid 43 Ariadne" was included in a list of names of supporters of the NASA spacecraft Stardust that was stored on a microchip within the spacecraft.
 The maximum apparent size of Ariadne is equal to the maximum apparent size of Pluto.

 References 

 Supplemental IRAS Minor Planet Survey 
 M. Kaasalainen, J. Torppa & J. Piironen Models of Twenty Asteroids from Photometric Data , Icarus, Vol. 159, p. 369 (2002).
 P. Tanga et al. Asteroid observations with the Hubble Space Telescope, Astronomy & Astrophysics, Vol. 401, p. 733 (2003).
 PDS lightcurve data 
 G. A. Krasinsky et al. Hidden Mass in the Asteroid Belt, Icarus, Vol. 158, p. 98 (2002).

 Other websites 
 shape model deduced from lightcurve 
 bi-lobed shape model from Hubble lightcurves
 Orbital simulation from JPL (Java) / Ephemeris

Category:Asteroids