Discovery date 31 July 1872 Minor planet category Main belt Aphelion 3.0183 AU (451.53 Gm) Orbits Sun Asteroid group Asteroid belt | Named after Brynhildr Observation arc 143.71 yr (52490 days) Discovered 31 July 1872 Discovery site Litchfield Observatory | |
Discoverer Christian Heinrich Friedrich Peters Similar 188 Menippe, 167 Urda, 196 Philomela, 114 Kassandra, 145 Adeona | ||
123 Brunhild is a stony S-type main-belt asteroid. It was discovered by German-American astronomer C. H. F. Peters on July 31, 1872, and named after Brünnehilde, a Valkyrie in Norse mythology. Brunhild has been mistaken for the non-existent variable star KN Gem.
In 1983, 123 Brunhild was observed photometrically from the Observatoire de Haute-Provence, producing an irregular light curve that showed eight extremes, including two minima and two maxima that were more accentuated than the others. This curve indicates an irregular shape or possibly areas with higher albedo, with a rotation period of 10.04 ± 0.02 hours and a brightness variation of 0.16 ± 0.01 in magnitude.
Based upon IRAS observations, the estimated diameter of this asteroid is 47.97 ± 2.6 km with a geometric albedo of 0.2134 ± 0.026. A smaller diameter value of 41.33 ± 1.73 km is obtained from the Midcourse Space Experiment observations, with an accordingly higher albedo of 0.2886 ± 0.0247.