317 Roxane

317 Roxane is an asteroid from the asteroid belt approximately 19 km in diameter. It was discovered by French astronomer Auguste Charlois from Nice on 11 September 1891. The name was chosen by F. Bidschof, an assistant at the Vienna Observatory, at Charlois' request; Bidschof chose to name it after Roxana, the wife of Alexander the Great, and at first used the spelling "Roxana".

This asteroid is orbiting the Sun at a distance of with a low eccentricity (ovalness) of 0.086 and an orbital period of 3.46 years. The orbital plane is inclined at an angle of 3.46° relative to the plane of the ecliptic. Infrared measurements show a diameter of . It is classified as an E-type asteroid and has a rotation period of 8.169 hours.

In 2008, a team identified Roxane as the closest known spectroscopic match for the Peña Blanca Spring meteorite that landed in a swimming pool in Texas in 1946. There is a possibility, therefore, that 317 Roxane is from the same parent object as this meteorite.

Satellite In 2009, a team using the Gemini North adaptive optics telescope discovered a moon orbiting Roxane. The moon is named Olympias, after the mother of Alexander the Great who was the king of Macedonia and husband of Roxana. Prior to its naming, the moon was provisionally named . It measures 5 km in diameter and orbits 245 km from Roxane, completing one orbit every 13 days.

317 Roxane

Bron en licentie