10 Hygiea - Orbit and Rotation

Orbit and Rotation

Generally, Hygiea's properties are the most poorly known out of the "big four" objects in the asteroid belt. Its orbit is much closer to the plane of the ecliptic than those of Ceres, Pallas or Interamnia, but is less circular than Ceres or Vesta with an eccentricity of around 12%. Its perihelion is at a quite similar longitude to those of Vesta and Ceres, though its ascending and descending nodes are opposite to the corresponding ones for those objects. Although its perihelion is extremely close to the mean distance of Ceres and Pallas, a collision between Hygiea and its larger companions is impossible because at that distance they are always on opposite sides of the ecliptic. In 2056, Hygiea will pass 0.025AU from Ceres, and then in 2063, Hygiea will pass 0.020AU from Pallas. At aphelion Hygiea reaches out to the extreme edge of the asteroid belt at the perihelia of the Hilda family which is in 3:2 resonance with Jupiter.

It is an unusually slow rotator, taking 27 hours and 37 minutes for a revolution, whereas 6 to 12 hours are more typical for large asteroids. Its direction of rotation is not certain at present, due to a twofold ambiguity in lightcurve data that is exacerbated by its long rotation period—which makes single-night telescope observations span at best only a fraction of a full rotation—but it is believed to be retrograde. Lightcurve analysis indicates that Hygiea's pole points towards either ecliptic coordinates (β, λ) = (30°, 115°) or (30°, 300°) with a 10° uncertainty. This gives an axial tilt of about 60° in both cases.