Discovered by August Kopff Alternative names 1909 FR Aphelion 3.1092 AU (465.13 Gm) Discovered 18 January 1909 Discoverer August Kopff Asteroid group Asteroid belt | Discovery date 18 January 1909 Observation arc 109.68 yr (40062 d) Perihelion 2.8043 AU (419.52 Gm) Orbits Sun Asteroid family Eos family | |
Discovery site Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory Similar 276 Adelheid, 132 Aethra, 193 Ambrosia, 528 Rezia, 441 Bathilde | ||
677 Aaltje is a main-belt minor planet orbiting the Sun, discovered by August Kopff at Heidelberg on January 18, 1909. It was named after the Dutch singer Aaltje Noordewier-Reddingius.
This object has a geometric albedo of 0.2794. Photometric observations during 2008 showed a rotation period of 16.6076 ± 0.0006 hours and a brightness variation of 0.30 ± 0.02 in magnitude.
677 Aaltje is orbiting within the 7/3 Kirkwood gap. This means it has a 7:3 orbital resonance with Jupiter, completing seven orbits for every three orbits of the planet. For smaller objects, this would typically lead to orbital instability, causing it to shift to a different orbital period. However, 677 Aaltje is too large for its orbit to have been moved by more than about 0.01 AU over the lifetime of the Solar System. What is more likely is that orbital interactions with the dwarf planet Ceres may have shifted it to the present-day orbit—the orbit of 677 Aaltje leads it into relatively close encounters with Ceres.