3494 Purple Mountain

Infobox Planet | discovery=yes | physical_characteristics = yes | bgcolour=#FFFFC0
name=3494 Purple Mountain
discoverer=Purple Mountain Observatory
discovered=December 7, 1980
alt_names=1980 XW; mp|1962 WV|1;
1969 UD; 1972 OA
mp_category=Main belt (Vesta family)
epoch=November 26, 2005 (JD 2453700.5)
semimajor=351.553 Gm (2.350 AU)
perihelion=305.825 Gm (2.044 AU)
aphelion=397.281 Gm (2.656 AU)
eccentricity=0.130
period=1315.820 d (3.60 a)
inclination=5.837°
asc_node=234.559°
arg_peri=72.282°
mean_anomaly=86.279°
avg_speed=19.35 km/s
dimensions=?
mass=?
density=?
surface_grav=?
escape_velocity=?
rotation=?
spectral_type=V-type asteroid
abs_magnitude=12.7
albedo=?
single_temperature=~182 K "(estimate)"

3494 Purple Mountain is a small main belt asteroid. It is not purple; its unusual name comes from the Purple Mountain Observatory in China, where it was rediscovered in 1980 (it had been seen but lost, several times before, since 1962).

Purple Mountain is of the Vesta family of asteroids, and is a fragment chipped off the very large asteroid 4 Vesta by the impact that formed this family. A spectroscopic analysis showed it to have a composition very similar to the cumulate eucrite meteorites ^{[http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-bib_query?bibcode=2003DPS....35.3412K&db_key=AST&data_type=HTML&format=&high=444b66a47d20279]} .