Discovered by A. Schwassmann MPC designation 1310 Villigera Minor planet category Mars-crosser Orbits Sun Discovery site Hamburg Observatory | Discovery date 28 February 1932 Alternative names 1932 DB · 1964 TC Discovered 28 February 1932 Spectral type S-type asteroid Asteroid group Asteroid belt | |
Named after Walther Villiger (astronomer) Discoverer Friedrich Karl Arnold Schwassmann Similar 132 Aethra, Sun, 29P/Schwassmann–Wachmann | ||
1310 Villigera, provisional designation 1932 DB, is a stony asteroid and large Mars-crosser from the innermost regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 15 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 28 February 1932, by German astronomer Friedrich Schwassmann at Bergedorf Observatory in Hamburg, Germany.
Villigera is a S-type asteroid on the Tholen taxonomic scheme. It orbits the Sun at a distance of 1.5–3.2 AU once every 3 years and 8 months (1,352 days). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.36 and an inclination of 21° with respect to the ecliptic. No precoveries were taken, and no prior identifications were made. The body's observation arc begins 10 days after its official discovery observation with its first used observation at Uccle Observatory.
In October 2001, the first rotational light-curve of Villigera was obtained by astronomer Robert Koff at Thornton Observatory (713) in Colorado. Light curve analysis gave a well-defined rotation period of 7.830 hours with a brightness variation of 0.39 magnitude (U=3). Photometric observations by astronomers René Roy, Raoul Behrend and Pierre Antonini in February 2006, gave a concurring period of 7.834 hours and an amplitude of 0.36 magnitude (U=3). In 2016, a modeled light-curves using photometric data from various sources, rendered an identical period of 7.830 and a spin axis of (3.0°, 63°) in ecliptic coordinates (U=n.a.).
No diameter or albedo estimates of Villigera have been published by any of the space-based surveys such as the Infrared Astronomical Satellite IRAS, the Japanese Akari satellite, or NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer with its subsequent NEOWISE mission. The Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link assumes a standard albedo for stony asteroids of 0.20 and calculates a diameter of 15.24 kilometers, using an absolute magnitude of 11.45. Based on a generic magnitude-to-diameter conversion, Villigera measures between 13 and 30 kilometers for an albedo in the range of 0.05 to 0.25.
Other large Mars crossing minor planets include 132 Aethra (43 km), 323 Brucia (36 km), and 2204 Lyyli (25 km).
This minor planet was named in honour of Swiss astronomer Walther Villiger (1872–1938), who himself discovered the main-belt asteroid 428 Monachia at Munich in 1897. Naming citation was first mentioned in The Names of the Minor Planets by Paul Herget in 1955 (H 120).