2175 Andrea Doria
2175 Andrea Doria, provisional designation , is a stony Florian asteroid from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 4 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 12 October 1977, by Swiss astronomer Paul Wild at Zimmerwald Observatory near Bern, Switzerland, and named after 16th-century Genoese admiral Andrea Doria. Orbit and classification. "Andrea Doria" is a member of the Flora family, one of the largest families of stony asteroids in the main belt. It orbits the Sun in the inner main-belt at a distance of 1.8–2.7 AU once every 3 years and 4 months (1,205  days). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.21 and an inclination of 4° with respect to the ecliptic. A first precovery was taken at Palomar Observatory in 1950, extending the body's observation arc by 27 years prior to its official discovery observation at Zimmerwald. Physical characteristics. In October 2010, a rotational lightcurve of "Andrea Doria" was obtained from photometric observations by American amateur astronomer Ralph Megna. Lightcurve analysis gave a well-defined rotation period of 4.880 hours with a brightness variation of 0.25 magnitude (). According to the survey carried out by NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer  with its subsequent NEOWISE mission, "Andrea Doria" measures between 3.86 and 4.013 kilometers in diameter and its surface has an albedo between 0.392 and 0.417. The "Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link" assumes an albedo of 0.24 – derived from 8 Flora, a S-type asteroid and the family's largest member and namesake – and calculates a diameter of 4.50 kilometers with an absolute magnitude of 13.9. Naming. This minor planet was named after Genoese admiral Andrea Doria (1466–1560), popularized in Friedrich Schiller's drama "Fiesco". Several ships, including the "SS Andrea Doria", famous for its sinking off the coast of New England , had also been named after the admiral. The official naming citation was published by the Minor Planet Center on 22 September 1983 ().