Discovered by M. Wolf MPC designation 802 Epyaxa Minor planet category main-belt · Flora Orbits Sun Asteroid family Flora family | Discovery date 20 March 1915 Named after Epyaxa
(Queen, 400 BC) Discovered 20 March 1915 Discoverer Max Wolf Asteroid group Asteroid belt | |
Alternative names 1915 WR · 1930 YK
1931 AX · 1970 AM1
1972 XW · 1977 FG3 Discovery site Landessternwarte Heidelberg-Königstuhl Similar 540 Rosamunde, 528 Rezia, 509 Iolanda, 417 Suevia, 889 Erynia | ||
802 Epyaxa, provisional designation 1915 WR, is a stony asteroid from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, about 7 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered by German astronomer Max Wolf at the Heidelberg Observatory in southern Germany, on 20 March 1915.
The S-type asteroid is a member of the Flora family, one of the largest groups of stony asteroids in the main-belt. It orbits the Sun at a distance of 2.0–2.4 AU once every 3 years and 3 months (1,189 days). Its orbit shows an eccentricity of 0.08 and is tilted by 5 degrees to the plane of the ecliptic. From 2009 to 2014, seven photometric light-curve analysis rendered a well-defined, concurring rotation period of 4.39 hours (also see adjunct infobox).
According to the survey carried out by the U.S. Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer with its NEOWISE mission, the asteroid's surface has a relatively high albedo of 0.29, while the Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link assumes a more moderate value of 0.24, which is also identical to the albedo of the Flora family's namesake, the asteroid 8 Flora.
The minor planet was named after "Epyaxa" (Ἐπύαξα), wife of King Syennesis and queen of the Kingdom of Cilicia in South Asia Minor in the 5th century BCE. The couple supported the revolt of Cyrus the Younger against his brother Artaxerxes II of Persia, after whom the minor planet 7212 Artaxerxes is named. Epyaxa had her own army and her own lavish budget to spend. Her Kingdom lost its independence and became a Persian satrapy of the Achaemenid Empire after the defeat of Cyrus.