(588) Achilles

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( 588 ) Achilles is an asteroid from the group of Jupiter Trojans, so it runs on Jupiter's orbit around the sun.

Achilles was discovered on 22 February 1906 by Max Wolf the first trojan and is named after the Greek hero Achilles in the Iliad. The name of the asteroid was originally proposed by Johann Palisa, a friend and colleague of Max Wolf.

The asteroid passes Jupiter on its orbit around 60 ° ahead ( it is at the Lagrange point L4). The leading- Trojans are also known as Greeks and are therefore named after the ancient Greek heroes. The web of Achilles runs between 4.4 ( perihelion ) and 6.0 ( aphelion ) astronomical units and is 10 ° inclined to the ecliptic. The orbital eccentricity is 0.15.

While the opposition Achilles reached an apparent magnitude of 16.6 mag. It is thus a very light faint object in the night sky.

In addition to its small size also Achilles ' low albedo ( reflectivity ) for its low brightness is responsible. It reflects only 3.3 % of the incident light, so it is blacker than, for example asphalt. Its surface is according to measurements at the Infrared Telescope Facility ( IRTF ) NASA probably 20 to 40% pyroxene (various silicates). For the observed red color of the reflected portion of iron might be responsible. Tholinanteile, so transformed by ultraviolet light methane and ethane components, over 10 % on the surface could be excluded by spectral analyzes. Also, the surface is poor in chlorites (maximum 1%).