3494 Purple Mountain

3494 Purple Mountain

Discovery
Discovered by	Purple Mountain Observatory
Discovery date	December 7, 1980
Designations
Named after	Purple Mountain Observatory
Alternative names	1980 XW; 1962 WV1; 1969 UD; 1972 OA
Minor planet category	Main belt (Vesta family)
Orbital characteristics
Epoch November 26, 2005 (JD 2453700.5)
Aphelion	397.281 Gm (2.656 AU)
Perihelion	305.825 Gm (2.044 AU)
Semi-major axis	351.553 Gm (2.350 AU)
Eccentricity	0.130
Orbital period	1315.820 d (3.60 a)
Average orbital speed	19.35 km/s
Mean anomaly	86.279°
Inclination	5.837°
Longitude of ascending node	234.559°
Argument of perihelion	72.282°
Physical characteristics
Temperature	~182 K (estimate)
Spectral type	V-type asteroid
Absolute magnitude (H)	12.7

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

Purple Mountain is a vestoid, a fragment blasted off the giant asteroid 4 Vesta by the impact that formed the Vestian collisional family. A spectroscopic analysis showed it to have a composition very similar to the cumulate eucrite meteorites.