Discovered by J. Chacornac Pronunciation /foʊˈsiːə/ foh-SEE-ə Aphelion 450.716 Gm (3.013 AU) Discovered 6 April 1853 Spectral type S-type asteroid Named after Phocaea | Discovery date April 6, 1853 Alternative names 1956 GC Orbital period 1,358 days Orbits Sun Discoverer Jean Chacornac | |
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Minor planet category Main belt (Phocaea family) Similar Jean Chacornac discoveries, Other celestial objects | ||
25 Phocaea is a main-belt asteroid. It was discovered by J. Chacornac at Marseille, on April 6. 1853. It was his first asteroid discovery out of a total of six. It is named after Phocaea, the Greek name of Foça in Turkey, whence the founders of Marseille came.
Phocaea has been studied by radar. Photometric observations of this asteroid at the Organ Mesa Observatory in Las Cruces, New Mexico during 2010 gave a light curve with a period of 9.9341 ± 0.0002 hours. The brightness near the deepest minimum of the light curve showed changes with phase angle, which is the result of shadows extending across surface irregularities.
References
25 Phocaea Wikipedia(Text) CC BY-SA