Discovery date 3 June 1875 Observation arc 110.90 yr (40506 d) Orbits Sun Asteroid family Vibilia family | Minor planet category Main belt Discovered 3 June 1875 Discovery site Litchfield Observatory | |
Discovered by Christian Heinrich Friedrich Peters Aphelion 3.28006 AU (490.690 Gm) Perihelion 2.03462 AU (304.375 Gm) Discoverer Christian Heinrich Friedrich Peters Christian Heinrich Friedrich Peters discoveries 145 Adeona, 165 Loreley, 188 Menippe, 196 Philomela | ||
144 Vibilia is a large, dark main belt asteroid that was discovered by C. H. F. Peters on June 3, 1875, from the observatory at Hamilton College, Clinton, New York. Peters named it after Vibilia, the Roman goddess of traveling, because he had recently returned from a journey across the world to observe the transit of Venus. Peters also discovered 145 Adeona on the same night.
Based upon its spectrum, this object is classified as a C-type asteroid. This means it probably has a primitive carbonaceous composition. It is the only large member of the Vibilia asteroid family.
Vibilia has been observed to occult a star twice so far (in 1993 and again in 2001).
13-cm radar observations of this asteroid from the Arecibo Observatory between 1980 and 1985 were used to produce a diameter estimate of 131 km. Based upon radar data, the near surface solid density of the asteroid is 2.4+0.7
−0.5 g cm−3.