Rahul Sharma (Editor)

205 Martha

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Discovered by
  
Johann Palisa

Minor planet category
  
Main belt

Aphelion
  
2.8758 AU (430.21 Gm)

Discovered
  
13 October 1879

Spectral type
  
C-type asteroid

Named after
  
Martha

Discovery date
  
13 October 1879

Observation arc
  
136.51 yr (49860 d)

Perihelion
  
2.6783 AU (400.67 Gm)

Orbits
  
Sun

Discoverer
  
Johann Palisa

Discovery site
  
Pola Observatory

Similar
  
242 Kriemhild, 220 Stephania, 142 Polana, 218 Bianca, 266 Aline

205 Martha is a large main belt asteroid. It is a dark, primitive carbonaceous C-type asteroid. This object was discovered by Johann Palisa on October 13, 1879 in Pola and was named after Martha, a woman in the New Testament.

Efforts to determine the rotation period for this asteroid have produced wildly different results, in large part because the actual period is close to half of an Earth day. A study performed during 2013 showed that the light curve changed significantly during the observation period, adding to the difficulty. This study gave a synodic rotation period of 14.905 ± 0.001 h.

References

205 Martha Wikipedia