Discovery date 7 August 1875 Observation arc 136.83 yr (49978 d) Discovered 7 August 1875 Asteroid group Asteroid belt | Minor planet category Main belt Aphelion 3.2883 AU (491.92 Gm) Orbits Sun Discovery site Paris Observatory | |
Perihelion 2.25843 AU (337.856 Gm) Discoverers Paul Henry and Prosper Henry, Prosper Henry Paul Henry and Prosper Henry discoveries 162 Laurentia, 127 Johanna, 125 Liberatrix | ||
148 Gallia (as Greek Γαλλία) is a large main-belt asteroid that is named after the Latin name for France: Gaul. Gallia was discovered by the French brothers Paul Henry and Prosper Henry on August 7, 1875, but the credit for this discovery was given to Prosper. Based upon its spectrum, this is a GU-type asteroid in the Tholen classification taxonomy, while Bus and Binzel (2002) categorize it as an S-type asteroid.
Photometric observations of this asteroid at the European Southern Observatory in 1977–78 gave a light curve with a period of 0.86098 ± 0.00030 days (20.6635 ± 0.0072 h) and a brightness variation of 0.32 in magnitude. A 2007 study at the Palmer Divide Observatory in Colorado Springs, Colorado yielded a period of 20.666 ± 0.002 h with a magnitude variation of 0.21.
This object is the namesake of a family of 22–113 asteroids that share similar spectral properties and orbital elements. Hence they may have arisen from the same collisional event. All members have a relatively high orbital inclination.