277 Elvira

Minor Planet | name=277 Elvira
discoverer=Auguste Charlois
discovery_date=May 3, 1888
designations=
category=Main belt (Koronis)
epoch=30 January, 2005 (JD 2453400.5)
semimajor=431.825 Gm (2.887 AU)
perihelion=393.543 Gm (2.631 AU)
aphelion=470.106 Gm (3.142 AU)
eccentricity=0.089
period=1791.278 d (4.9 a)
inclination=1.156°
asc_node=231.771°
arg_peri=134.12°
mean_anomaly=145.516°
speed=17.53 km/s
dimensions=27.0 km
mass="unknown"
density="unknown"
gravity="unknown"
escape_velocity="unknown"
rotation="unknown"
spectral_class="unknown"
abs_mag=9.84
albedo="unknown"
temperature="unknown"

277 Elvira is a typical main belt asteroid and a member of the Koronis asteroid family.

It was discovered by Auguste Charlois on May 3, 1888 in Nice. (277) Elvira is possibly named for a character in Alphonse de Lamartine’s Méditations poétiques (1820) and Harmonies poétiques et religieuses (1830). [ Schmadel Lutz D. Dictionary of Minor Planet Names (fifth edition), Springer, 2003. ISBN-10: 3540002383.]

A group of astronomers, including Lucy D’Escoffier Crespo da Silva and Richard P. Binzel, used observations made between 1998 through 2000 to determine the spin-vector alignment of the Koronis family of asteroids, including 277 Elvira. The collaborative work resulted in the creation of 61 new individual rotation lightcurves to augment previous published observations. [Slivan, S. M., Binzel, R. P., Crespo da Silva, L. D., Kaasalainen, M., Lyndaker, M. M., Krco, M.: “Spin vectors in the Koronis family: comprehensive results from two independent analyses of 213 rotation lightcurves,”Icarus, 162, 2003, pp. 285-307.]

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