Discovery date June 15, 1866 Minor planet category Main belt Aphelion 482.242 Gm (3.224 AU) Named after Pyramus and Thisbe | Pronunciation /ˈθɪzbiː/ THIZ-bee Adjectives Thisbean Discovered 15 June 1866 Orbits Sun Discovery site Litchfield Observatory | |
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Discoverer Christian Heinrich Friedrich Peters Similar Christian Heinrich Friedrich Peters discoveries, Other celestial objects | ||
88 Thisbe (/ˈθɪzbiː/ THIZ-bee) is the 13th largest main-belt asteroids. It was discovered by C. H. F. Peters on June 15, 1866, and named after Thisbe, heroine of a Roman fable. An occultation of a star by Thisbe was observed on October 7, 1981. Results from the occultation indicate a larger than expected diameter of 232 km.
During 2000, 88 Thisbe was observed by radar from the Arecibo Observatory. The return signal matched an effective diameter of 207 ± 22 km. This is consistent with the asteroid dimensions computed through other means.
Photometric observations of this asteroid during 1977 gave a light curve with a period of 6.0422 ± 0.006 hours and a brightness variation of 0.19 in magnitude.
Perturbation
Thisbe has been perturbed by asteroid 7 Iris and in 2001 Michalak estimated it to have a mass of 1.5×1019 kg. But Iris is strongly perturbed by many minor planets such as 10 Hygiea and 15 Eunomia.
In 2008, Baer estimated Thisbe to have a mass of 1.05×1019 kg. In 2011 Baer revised this to 1.83×1019 kg with an uncertainty of 1.09×1018 kg.