Minor planet category Main belt Discovered 8 June 1875 Discovery site Marseille Observatory | Discovery date 8 June 1875 Observation arc 130.35 yr (47610 d) Orbits Sun Asteroid group Asteroid belt | |
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Aphelion 2.89945 AU (433.752 Gm) Perihelion 2.53641 AU (379.442 Gm) Similar 165 Loreley, 145 Adeona, 196 Philomela, 360 Carlova, 127 Johanna | ||
146 Lucina is a main-belt asteroid that was discovered by Alphonse Borrelly on June 8, 1875, and named after Lucina, the Roman goddess of childbirth. It is large, dark and has a carbonaceous composition.
Photometric observations of this asteroid made during 1979 and 1981 gave a light curve with a period of 18.54 hours.
Two stellar occultations by Lucina have been observed so far, in 1982 and 1989. During the first event, a possible small satellite with an estimated 5.7 km diameter was detected at a distance of 1,600 km from 146 Lucina. A 1992 search using a CCD failed to discover a satellite larger than 0.6 km, although it may have been obscured by occultation mask. Further evidence for a satellite emerged in 2003, this time based on astrometric measurements.