149 Medusa
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| Orbital characteristics 1 (ftp://ftp.lowell.edu/pub/elgb/astorb.html) | |
|---|---|
| Orbit type | Main belt |
| Semimajor axis | 2.175 AU |
| Perihelion distance | 2.033 AU |
| Aphelion distance | 2.316 AU |
| Orbital period | 3.21 years |
| Inclination | 0.94° |
| Eccentricity | 0.065 |
| Physical characteristics 1 (ftp://ftp.lowell.edu/pub/elgb/astorb.html) | |
| Diameter | 19.7 km |
| Rotation period | 26 hours |
| Spectral class 5 (http://spiff.rit.edu/richmond/parallax/phot/LCSUMPUB.TXT) | S |
| Abs. magnitude | 10.79 |
| Albedo 4 (http://dorothy.as.arizona.edu/DSN/IRAS/index_iras.html) | 0.220 |
| History 2 (http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/iau/lists/NumberedMPs.html) | |
| Discoverer | J. Perrotin, 1875 |
149 Medusa is a bright-coloured, stony main belt asteroid.
It was discovered by J. Perrotin on September 21, 1875 and named after the Gorgon Medusa, a snake-haired monster in Greek mythology.
When it was discovered, Medusa was by far the smallest asteroid found (although this was not known at that time). Since then, many thousands of smaller asteroids have been found.
It has also a rather long rotation period of 26 hours.
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| (For a complete listing, see: List of asteroids. For pronunciation, see: Pronunciation of asteroid names.) |