107 Camilla

107 Camilla is one of the biggest main belt asteroids. It orbits within the Cybele Group, beyond most of the main belt asteroids. It has a very dark surface and is made of carbonate. It was found by N. R. Pogson on November 17, 1868, and named after Camilla, Queen of the Volsci in Roman mythology.

Study of its light curve shows that Camilla's pole probably points towards ecliptic coordinates (β, λ) = (+51°, 72°) with a 10° uncertainty, which gives it an axial tilt of 29°.

 Moon (S/2001 (107) I) 

On March 1, 2001, a moon of Camilla was found by A. Storrs, F. Vilas, R. Landis, E. Wells, C. Woods, B. Zellner, and M. Gaffey using the Hubble Space Telescope. It has been labelled S/2001 (107) 1 but it does not yet have an official name.

Later sightings in September 2005 with the VLT allowed scientists to work out its orbit. Apart from data in infobox, the inclination was found to be 3 ± 1° with respect to an axis pointing towards (β, λ) = (+55°, 75°). Given the ~10° uncertainty in the actual rotational axis of Camilla, the orbit's inclination probably is less than 10°.

The moon is estimated to be about 11 km in diameter. If it has the same density as Camilla, this would give it a mass of about ~1.5 kg. It has a similar colour to Camilla.

 References 

 Other websites 
 Data on (87) Sylvia from Johnston's archive (maintained by W. R. Johnston)
 Hubble Finds New Asteroid Moon (SpaceDaily.com, 21-03-2001), includes discovery image.
 107 Camilla and S/2001 (107) 1, orbit data website maintained by F. Marchis. Includes orbit diagrams.

Category:Asteroids