18 Melpomene

18 Melpomene is a large, bright main-belt asteroid that was discovered by J. R. Hind on 24 June 1852,<ref name="IAU_MPC"/> and named after Melpomenē, the Muse of tragedy in Greek mythology. Its historical symbol was a dagger over a star; it was encoded in Unicode 17.0 as U+1CECB 𜻋 (File:Melpomene symbol (fixed width).svg).<ref name=astunicode>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="Unicode-1CEC0">Template:Cite web</ref>

Melpomene is classified as an S-type asteroid and is composed of silicates and metals. This asteroid is orbiting the Sun at a distance of Template:Cvt with a period of Template:Convert and an eccentricity (ovalness) of 0.22. The orbital plane is tilted at an angle of 10.1° to the plane of the ecliptic.<ref name=jpldata/>

Melpomene occulted the star SAO 114159 on 11 December 1978. A possible Melpomenean satellite with a diameter of at least 37 km was detected. The satellite candidate received a provisional designation S/1978 (18) 1.<ref name=IAUC3315/> In 1988 a search for satellites or dust orbiting this asteroid was performed using the UH88 telescope at the Mauna Kea Observatories, but the effort came up empty.<ref name="Gradie1988"/> Melpomene was observed with the Hubble Space Telescope in 1993. It was able to resolve the asteroid's slightly elongated shape, but no satellites were detected.<ref name=Hubble1999/>

Melpomene has been studied by radar.<ref name="detected"/> Photometric observations during 2012 provided a rotation period of Template:Val with a brightness variation of Template:Val in magnitude, which is consistent with previous studies.<ref name=Pilcher2013/> It has a mean diameter of Template:Val.<ref name=VLT/><ref name=jpldata/>

Melpomene can reach an apparent magnitude of +7.9 at a favorable opposition near perihelion, such as occurred in September 2002 when it was Template:Convert from Earth.<ref name="Horizons2002"/>

External links

• Template:AstDys
• Template:JPL small body