6 Hebe
Asteroid possibly linked to H chondrite meteorites.
6 Hebe is a large main-belt asteroid that contains about 0.5% of the belt's mass. Its high bulk density, greater than that of the Moon, suggests it is an extremely solid body not shaped by collisions, unlike many asteroids of its size. Hebe is the fifth-brightest asteroid and may be the parent body of the H chondrite meteorites, which account for roughly 40% of all meteorites striking Earth.
Quick Facts
- Discoverer
- Karl Ludwig Hencke
- Discovered
- 1 July 1847
- Discovery site
- Driesen, Prussia
- Adjectives
- Hebean h
- iː
- ˈ
- b
- iː
- @
- n (trad.)
- Named after
- Hēbē
- Inclination
- 14.736°
- Average speed
- 18.93 km/s
- Surface gravity
- ~0.0124, 102.5–0.0127, 92.5 m/s2
Facts from the source article.
History
Hebe was discovered on 1 July 1847 by German astronomer Karl Ludwig Hencke in Driesen, Brandenburg, Prussia (now Drezdenko, Poland). It was the sixth asteroid discovered and Hencke's second and final asteroid discovery, following 5 Astraea. At Hencke's request, Carl Friedrich Gauss proposed the name Hebe, after the Greek goddess of youth. Early asteroids had been widely considered planets, but the rapid discoveries of several new asteroids in the late 1840s complicated classification; Hebe was variously labeled a planet, small planet, or asteroid. Eventually, the terms asteroid and minor planet became favored, though some astronomers continued calling Hebe a planet. Gauss chose a wineglass as Hebe's astronomical symbol, later encoded in Unicode 17.0 as U+1CEC0. In 1851, Johann Franz Encke proposed a simpler numbering system, leading to the modern notation (6) Hebe or 6 Hebe. On 5 March 1977, Hebe occulted the star γ Ceti A (Kaffaljidhma).
Orbit
Hebe orbits the Sun at an average distance of 2.426 AU, placing it in the inner main belt. Its moderately elliptical orbit varies from 1.935 AU at perihelion to 2.917 AU at aphelion, with an eccentricity of 0.202. The orbital period is 3.778 Earth years, and the orbit is inclined 14.74° to the ecliptic. Hebe resides near the 3:1 mean-motion resonance with Jupiter at about 2.50 AU and near a destabilizing secular resonance with Saturn at 15–16° inclination.
Possible Hebe family
In the 1990s, Hebe was identified as a possible source for H chondrites and IIE iron meteorites. Its location near the 3:1 Jovian mean-motion resonance and the Saturnian secular resonance means impact fragments are easily destabilized into Earth-crossing orbits. Two near-Earth objects with H chondritic surface compositions point to Hebe as their parent body. Spectral observations in the early 2010s identified 695 Bella, 1166 Sakuntala, and 1607 Mavis as potential relatives, though they lie on the opposite side of the 3:1 Kirkwood gap. A 2020 study led by Sherry K. Fieber-Beyer identified nine additional candidate members of the tentative Hebe family.
Physical characteristics
Hebe has a volume-equivalent spheroidal diameter of 193 km and approximates an oblate spheroid with numerous extreme topographical features. Five large depressions, possibly deep impact craters, range from about 50 km to over 100 km in size and 7 to 18 km in depth. A large flattened face gives Hebe the appearance of a lopped-off tooth, possibly from an ancient impact. Lightcurve data indicate a prograde rotation period of 7.27 hours, with its north pole at ecliptic coordinates (β, λ) = (45°, 339°) with a 10° uncertainty. Hebe is an S-type asteroid under the Tholen scheme, further classified as S(IV)-type, indicating a silicate, undifferentiated or partially differentiated surface.
More in Objects Observed by Stellar Occultation
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