Gefion family
An asteroid family once misidentified as belonging to Ceres or Minerva.
Last updated
The Gefion family (FIN: 516) is an asteroid family located in the intermediate asteroid belt, with members having proper orbital elements between 2.74 and 2.82 AU and inclinations of 7.4° to 10.5°. It is named after 1272 Gefion and consists of more than 2,500 known members. The family is notable for its history of misidentification, having previously been known as the Ceres family and later as the Minerva family, until spectroscopic analyses revealed that the largest asteroids once thought to be its parents—1 Ceres and 93 Minerva—were actually interlopers.
Quick Facts
- Proper inclination range
- 7.4° to 10.5°
- Number of known members
- more than 2,500
- Namesake
- 1272 Gefion
Facts from the source article.
Background
The Gefion family is an S-type asteroid family located in the intermediate belt. Its members have proper orbital elements in approximate ranges of 2.74 to 2.82 AU and inclinations of 7.4° to 10.5°.
The family was originally known as the Ceres family, after 1 Ceres, the largest asteroid, and later as the Minerva family, after 93 Minerva, which was thought to be the parent body. However, spectroscopic analyses showed that both Ceres and Minerva are interlopers, belonging to a different spectral class than the bulk of the family. This left the relatively minor asteroid 1272 Gefion as the lowest-numbered member and the namesake.
The family is fairly large; the Zappala 1995 analysis found about a hundred core members. A search of a recent proper element database identified 766 objects (about 0.8% of the total) lying within the defined region. Among the core members, 2631 Zhejiang has a reliably estimated diameter of 34 km, while 2911 Miahelena is brighter and would have a rough diameter of about 47 km, assuming the same very low albedo of 0.025.
Known interlopers include 255 Oppavia, 374 Burgundia, 2507 Bobone, and 2559 Svoboda, in addition to Ceres and Minerva. The family is also designated FIN: 516.
More in Notable Asteroids
Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: Gefion family (CC BY-SA 4.0).
- Word definitions: the Codexery glossary, each quoted from its Wikipedia article.
Spotted an error? Know more?
Reader corrections go straight into our review queue. Suggest an edit · How this site is sourced