107 Camilla
Encyclopedia
107 Camilla is one of the largest main-belt asteroid
Asteroid
Asteroids are a class of small Solar System bodies in orbit around the Sun. They have also been called planetoids, especially the larger ones...

s. It orbits within the Cybele Group
Cybele asteroid
Cybele asteroids are a group of asteroids in the outer main belt with a semi-major axis between 3.27 AU and 3.7 AU, an eccentricity less than 0.3, and an inclination less than 25°. The group is named for the asteroid 65 Cybele...

, beyond most main-belt asteroids. It has a very dark surface and primitive carbonaceous
Carbonate
In chemistry, a carbonate is a salt of carbonic acid, characterized by the presence of the carbonate ion, . The name may also mean an ester of carbonic acid, an organic compound containing the carbonate group C2....

 composition. It was discovered by N. R. Pogson on November 17, 1868, and named after Camilla
Camilla (mythology)
In Roman mythology, Camilla of the Volsci was the daughter of King Metabus and Casmilla. Driven from his throne, Metabus was chased into the wilderness by armed Volsci, his infant daughter in his hands. The river Amasenus blocked his path, and, fearing for the child's welfare, Metabus bound her to...

, Queen of the Volsci
Volsci
The Volsci were an ancient Italic people, well known in the history of the first century of the Roman Republic. They then inhabited the partly hilly, partly marshy district of the south of Latium, bounded by the Aurunci and Samnites on the south, the Hernici on the east, and stretching roughly from...

 in Roman mythology
Roman mythology
Roman mythology is the body of traditional stories pertaining to ancient Rome's legendary origins and religious system, as represented in the literature and visual arts of the Romans...

.

Lightcurve analysis indicates that Camilla's pole most likely points towards ecliptic coordinates
Ecliptic coordinate system
The ecliptic coordinate system is a celestial coordinate system that uses the ecliptic for its fundamental plane. The ecliptic is the path that the sun appears to follow across the celestial sphere over the course of a year. It is also the intersection of the Earth's orbital plane and the celestial...

 (β, λ) = (+51°, 72°) with a 10° uncertainty, which gives it an axial tilt
Axial tilt
In astronomy, axial tilt is the angle between an object's rotational axis, and a line perpendicular to its orbital plane...

 of 29°.

Satellite (S/2001 (107) I)

On 1 March 2001, a satellite
Natural satellite
A natural satellite or moon is a celestial body that orbits a planet or smaller body, which is called its primary. The two terms are used synonymously for non-artificial satellites of planets, of dwarf planets, and of minor planets....

 of Camilla was found by A. Storrs, F. Vilas, R. Landis, E. Wells, C. Woods, B. Zellner, and M. Gaffey using the Hubble Space Telescope
Hubble Space Telescope
The Hubble Space Telescope is a space telescope that was carried into orbit by a Space Shuttle in 1990 and remains in operation. A 2.4 meter aperture telescope in low Earth orbit, Hubble's four main instruments observe in the near ultraviolet, visible, and near infrared...

. It has been designated S/2001 (107) 1 but has not yet received an official name.

Later observations in September 2005 with the VLT
VLT
VLT may stand for:* Very Large Telescope, a system of four large optical telescopes organized in an array formation, located in northern Chile...

allowed the determination of an orbit. Apart from data in infobox, the inclination was found to be 3 ± 1° with respect to an axis pointing towards (β, λ) = (+55°, 75°). Given the ~10° uncertainty in the actual rotational axis of Camilla, one can say that the orbit's inclination is less than 10°.

The satellite is estimated to measure about 11 km in diameter. Assuming a similar density to the primary, this would give it an approximate mass of ~1.5 kg. It has a similar colour to the primary.

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