Discovery date September 19, 1857 Minor planet category Main belt Aphelion 500.093 Gm (3.343 AU) Spectral type C-type asteroid Asteroid group Asteroid belt | Pronunciation /ˈdɔərᵻs/ Adjectives Dorian Discovered 19 September 1857 Orbits Sun | |
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Discovered by Hermann Mayer Salomon Goldschmidt Similar Hermann Goldschmidt discoveries, Other celestial objects | ||
48 Doris is one of the largest main belt asteroids. It was discovered by Hermann Goldschmidt on September 19, 1857 from his balcony in Paris.
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Name
To find a name for the object, Jacques Babinet of the Academy of Sciences created a shortlist and asked the geologist Élie de Beaumont to make the selection. De Beaumont chose Doris, after an Oceanid in Greek mythology. Since Doris was discovered on the same night as 49 Pales, de Deaumont suggested naming the two "The Twins".
Physical characteristics
An occultation on March 19, 1981, suggested a diameter of 219±25 km. Observations of an occultation on October 14, 1999, using four well-placed chords, indicate an ellipsoid of 278×142 km and that 48 Doris is an extremely irregularly shaped object.
Conjunction
Doris will pass within 0.019 AU of Pallas in June 2132.
In popular culture
48 Doris is a location in the text-based science fiction game Federation 2.