Pronunciation /əˈriːtiː/ ə-REE-tee Discovered 21 May 1879 | Discovery date 21 May 1879 Alternative names 1934 RE1 1950 DY Observation arc 136.89 yr (50000 d) Orbits Sun Discoverer Johann Palisa Discovery site Pola Observatory | |
Similar 178 Belisana, 196 Philomela, 142 Polana, 188 Menippe, 192 Nausikaa | ||
197 Arete is an asteroid in the asteroid belt. It has a very bright surface, unusually bright even for a rocky S-type asteroid.
It was discovered by J. Palisa on May 21, 1879, and named after Arete, the mother of Nausicaa in Homer's The Odyssey. Every 18 years, this asteroid approaches within 0.04 AU of 4 Vesta. During these encounters, Vesta causes a gravitational perturbation of Arete, allowing the mass of Vesta to be directly determined.
Photometric observations during 1984 showed a rotation period of 6.54 ± 0.02 hours and a brightness variation of 0.10 ± 0.01 in magnitude. The light curve shows "four well defined extrema with two asymmetric maxima".
References
197 Arete Wikipedia(Text) CC BY-SA