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511 Davida

 
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511 Davida
 
 
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511 Davida is a large main belt
Asteroid belt

The asteroid belt is the region of the Solar System located roughly between the orbits of the planets Mars and Jupiter. It is occupied by numerous irregularly shaped bodies called asteroids or minor planets....
 C-type asteroid
Asteroid

Asteroids, sometimes called minor planets or planetoids, are small Solar System bodies in orbit around the Sun, smaller than planets but larger than meteoroids....
. It was discovered by R. S. Dugan
Raymond Smith Dugan

Raymond Smith Dugan was an American astronomer and a graduate of Amherst College in Massachusetts .He did his Masters Degree at Amherst College in 1902, and then did his Ph.D....
 in 1903. It is thought to be one of the ten most massive asteroid
List of noteworthy asteroids

The following is a collection of lists of notable asteroids in the Solar System, including minor planets inside the orbit of Neptune. For a complete list of all minor planets in sequential numerical order, see List of minor planets....
s. It is approximately 270–310 km in diameter and comprises an estimated 1.5% of the total mass of the asteroid belt. It is a C-type asteroid
C-type asteroid

C-type asteroids are carbonaceous asteroids. They are the most common variety forming around 75% of known asteroids, and an even higher percentage in the outer part of the belt beyond 2.7 astronomical unit, which is dominated by this asteroid type....
, which means that it is dark in colouring with a carbonate composition.

Davida is one of the few main belt asteroids whose shape has been determined by ground-based visual observation.






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511 Davida is a large main belt
Asteroid belt

The asteroid belt is the region of the Solar System located roughly between the orbits of the planets Mars and Jupiter. It is occupied by numerous irregularly shaped bodies called asteroids or minor planets....
 C-type asteroid
Asteroid

Asteroids, sometimes called minor planets or planetoids, are small Solar System bodies in orbit around the Sun, smaller than planets but larger than meteoroids....
. It was discovered by R. S. Dugan
Raymond Smith Dugan

Raymond Smith Dugan was an American astronomer and a graduate of Amherst College in Massachusetts .He did his Masters Degree at Amherst College in 1902, and then did his Ph.D....
 in 1903. It is thought to be one of the ten most massive asteroid
List of noteworthy asteroids

The following is a collection of lists of notable asteroids in the Solar System, including minor planets inside the orbit of Neptune. For a complete list of all minor planets in sequential numerical order, see List of minor planets....
s. It is approximately 270–310 km in diameter and comprises an estimated 1.5% of the total mass of the asteroid belt. It is a C-type asteroid
C-type asteroid

C-type asteroids are carbonaceous asteroids. They are the most common variety forming around 75% of known asteroids, and an even higher percentage in the outer part of the belt beyond 2.7 astronomical unit, which is dominated by this asteroid type....
, which means that it is dark in colouring with a carbonate composition.

Davida is one of the few main belt asteroids whose shape has been determined by ground-based visual observation. From 2002 to 2007, astronomers at the Keck Observatory used the Keck II telescope, which is fitted with adaptive optics
Adaptive optics

Adaptive optics is a technology used to improve the performance of optics by reducing the effects of rapidly changing optical distortion. It is used in astronomical telescopes and laser communication systems to remove the effects of atmospheric distortion, and in retinal imaging systems to reduce the impact of ocular aberrations....
, to photograph Davida. The asteroid is not a dwarf planet
Dwarf planet

A dwarf planet, as defined by the International Astronomical Union , is a celestial body orbiting the Sun that is massive enough to be rounded by its own gravity but has not Clearing the neighbourhood of planetesimals and is not a natural satellite....
: There are at least two promontories and at least one flat facet with 15-km deviations from a best-fit ellipsoid
Ellipsoid

An ellipsoid is a type of Quadric that is a higher dimensional analogue of an ellipse. The equation of a standard axis-aligned ellipsoid body in an xyz-Cartesian coordinate system is...
. The facet is presumably a 150-km global-scale crater like the ones seen on 253 Mathilde
253 Mathilde

253 Mathilde is a Asteroid belt asteroid that was discovered by Johann Palisa in 1885. It has a relatively ellipse orbit that requires more than four years to circle the Sun....
. Conrad et al (2007) show that craters of this size "can be expected from the impactor size distribution, without likelihood of catastrophic disruption of Davida."

Davida is named after David Peck Todd
David Peck Todd

David Peck Todd was a noted United States of America astronomy. He produced a complete set of photographs of the 1882 transit of Venus....
, an astronomy professor at Amherst College
Amherst College

Amherst College is a private university Liberal arts colleges in the United States in Amherst, Massachusetts, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1821, it is the third oldest college in List of colleges and universities in Massachusetts, and has been coeducational since 1975....
.

Mass

In 2001, Michalak estimated Davida to have a mass of (6.64±0.56) kg
Kilogram

The kilogram or kilogrammeThe spelling kilogram is used by the International Committee for Weights and Measures and the U.S....
  In 2007, Baer and Chesley estimated Davida to have a mass of (5.9±0.6) kg
Kilogram

The kilogram or kilogrammeThe spelling kilogram is used by the International Committee for Weights and Measures and the U.S....
  A more recent estimate by Baer suggests Davida has a mass of 1.18 kg. This most recent estimate by Baer suggests that Davida is more massive than 704 Interamnia
704 Interamnia

'704 Interamnia' is a very large asteroid, with an estimated diameter of 350 kilometres. Its mean distance from the Sun is 3.067 . It was discovered on October 2, 1910 by Vincenzo Cerulli, and named after the Latin name for Teramo, Italy, where Cerulli worked....
.

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