54 Alexandra
Encyclopedia
54 Alexandra is a very large and dark main-belt asteroid
. It was discovered by Hermann Goldschmidt on September 10, 1858, and named after the German
explorer Alexander von Humboldt
; it was the first asteroid to be named after a male.
On May 17, 2005, this asteroid occulted a faint star (magnitude
8.5) and the event was observed and timed in a number of locations within the U.S.
and Mexico
. As a result a silhouette
profile was produced, yielding a roughly oval cross-section with dimensions of 160 × 135 km (± 1 km).
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...
. It was discovered by Hermann Goldschmidt on September 10, 1858, and named after the German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
explorer Alexander von Humboldt
Alexander von Humboldt
Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander Freiherr von Humboldt was a German naturalist and explorer, and the younger brother of the Prussian minister, philosopher and linguist Wilhelm von Humboldt...
; it was the first asteroid to be named after a male.
On May 17, 2005, this asteroid occulted a faint star (magnitude
Apparent magnitude
The apparent magnitude of a celestial body is a measure of its brightness as seen by an observer on Earth, adjusted to the value it would have in the absence of the atmosphere...
8.5) and the event was observed and timed in a number of locations within the U.S.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
. As a result a silhouette
Silhouette
A silhouette is the image of a person, an object or scene consisting of the outline and a basically featureless interior, with the silhouetted object usually being black. Although the art form has been popular since the mid-18th century, the term “silhouette” was seldom used until the early decades...
profile was produced, yielding a roughly oval cross-section with dimensions of 160 × 135 km (± 1 km).