1163 Saga

Orbit and classification

Saga is classified as a background asteroid, indicating that it does not belong to any known asteroid family. It orbits the Sun in the outer main belt at a distance of 3.1–3.4 AU once every 5 years and 9 months (2,112 days). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.05 and an inclination of 9° with respect to the ecliptic. The body's observation arc begins at Heidelberg, six weeks after its official discovery observation.

Physical characteristics

Saga is an presumed to be an S-type asteroid, although a wide range of measured albedos indicates otherwise (see below).

Rotation period

Since 2006, three rotational lightcurves of Saga have been obtained from photometric observations by French amateur astronomers Laurent Bernasconi and René Roy, as well as by astronomers at the Palomar Transient Factory in California. Lightcurve analysis gave a rotation period between 9.278 and 9.394 hours with a brightness amplitude of 0.25 to 0.33 magnitude ().

Diameter and albedo

According to the surveys carried out by the Infrared Astronomical Satellite IRAS, the Japanese Akari satellite, and the NEOWISE mission of NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, Saga's diameter measures between 26.29 and 38.113 kilometers, and its surface has an albedo between 0.0640 and 0.147.

The Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link derives an albedo of 0.1199 and adopts a diameter of 29.11 kilometers from IRAS with an absolute magnitude of 10.6.

Naming

This minor planet was named after the Sagas, a collection of prose Norse mythological stories of ancient Scandinavian and Germanic history. It includes the early Viking voyages and is mostly written in Old Icelandic (Old Norse). The official naming citation was mentioned in The Names of the Minor Planets by Paul Herget in 1955 (H 108).

References