Alternative names 1980 PA; 1988 XB1 Adjectives Nyctian Discovered 6 August 1980 | Discovery date 6 August 1980 Observation arc 13021 days (35.65 yr) Orbits Sun Discovery site La Silla Observatory | |
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Similar Solar System, Sun, 1580 Betulia, 1627 Ivar, 1865 Cerberus | ||
3908 Nyx is an Amor and Mars-crosser asteroid. It was discovered by Hans-Emil Schuster on August 6, 1980, and is named after Nyx, the Greek goddess of the night, after which Pluto's moon Nix is also named. It is 1–2 km in diameter and is a V-type asteroid, meaning that it may be a fragment of the asteroid 4 Vesta.
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Observations
In 2000, radar observations conducted at the Arecibo and Goldstone observatories produced a model of Nyx's shape; the asteroid can best be described as spherical but with many protruding lumps.
Name
To avoid confusion with 3908 Nyx, Pluto's moon Nix was changed from the initial proposal of the classical spelling Nyx, to Nix.
References
3908 Nyx Wikipedia(Text) CC BY-SA