Discovery date 12 March 1871 Observation arc 144.90 yr (52926 d) Discovered 12 March 1871 | Minor planet category Main belt Aphelion 2.5819 AU (386.25 Gm) Orbits Sun | |
Discovered by Karl Theodor Robert Luther Perihelion 2.17010 AU (324.642 Gm) Discovery site Düsseldorf-Bilk Observatory Similar Robert Luther discoveries, Other celestial objects | ||
113 Amalthea is a fairly typical rocky main-belt asteroid orbiting in the inner regions of the belt. It was discovered by R. Luther on March 12, 1871. The name comes from Amalthea of Greek mythology. One of Jupiter's inner small satellites, unrelated to 113 Amalthea, is also called Amalthea, as is an (apparently fictional) small Arjuna asteroid in Neal Stephenson's 2015 novel Seveneves.
Amalthea is thought to be a fragment from the mantle of a Vesta-sized, 300–600 km diameter parent body that broke up around one billion years ago, with the other major remnant being 9 Metis. The spectrum of 113 Amalthea reveals the presence of the mineral olivine, a relative rarity in the asteroid belt.
References
113 Amalthea Wikipedia(Text) CC BY-SA