1063 Aquilegia
1063 Aquilegia, provisional designation, is a background asteroid from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 17 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 6 December 1925, by German astronomer Karl Reinmuth at the Heidelberg Observatory in southwest Germany. The asteroid was named after the flowering plant Aquilegia.
Orbit and classification
Aquilegia is a non-family background asteroid when applying the hierarchical clustering method to its proper orbital elements. Based on more generic considerations, it has also been classified as a member of the Flora family, a giant asteroid family and the largest family of stony asteroids in the main-belt.It orbits the Sun in the inner asteroid belt at a distance of 2.2–2.4 AU once every 3 years and 6 months. Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.04 and an inclination of 6° with respect to the ecliptic.
First observed as at Heidelberg in May 1906, the body's observation arc begins with a precovery taken in July 1907, more than 18 years prior to its official discovery observation.
Physical characteristics
Aquilegia has been characterized as an X-type asteroid by Pan-STARRS photometric survey, which indicates that it is indeed a background asteroid rather than a member of the stony Flora family.Rotation period
In February 2004, a rotational lightcurve of Aquilegia was obtained from photometric observations by French amateur astronomer Laurent Bernasconi. Lightcurve analysis gave a well-defined rotation period of 5.792 hours with a high brightness variation of 0.75 magnitude, indicative for a non-spherical shape. Previous observations by Richard Binzel in May 1984 gave a similar period of 5.79 hours and an amplitude of 0.93 magnitude.Diameter and albedo
According to the surveys carried out by the Infrared Astronomical Satellite IRAS, the Japanese Akari satellite and the NEOWISE mission of NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, Aquilegia measures between 11.288 and 18.93 kilometers in diameter and its surface has an albedo between 0.139 and 0.389.The Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link adopts the results obtained by IRAS, that is, an albedo of 0.1572 and a diameter of 17.75 kilometers based on an absolute magnitude of 11.38.