827 Wolfiana, provisional designation 1916 ZW, is a Florian asteroid from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 8 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered at Vienna Observatory on 29 August 1916, by Austrian astronomer Johann Palisa, who named it after German astronomer Max Wolf.[2][9] The assumed stony asteroid has a rotation period of 4.0654 hours.
Wolfiana is a member of the Flora family (402),[3][4] a giant asteroid family and the largest family of stony asteroids in the main belt.[10]: 23 It orbits the Sun in the inner asteroid belt at a distance of 1.9–2.6 AU once every 3 years and 5 months (1,253 days; semi-major axis of 2.27 AU). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.16 and an inclination of 3° with respect to the ecliptic.[1] The body's observation arc begins with its official discovery observation at Vienna.[9]
In September 2012, a rotational lightcurveofWolfiana was obtained from photometric observations by American astronomers Luis Martinez, Arizona, and Frederick Pilcher at Organ Mesa Observatory (G50), New Mexico. Lightcurve analysis gave a well-defined rotation period of 4.0654 hours with a brightness amplitude of 0.20 magnitude (U=3),[8] refining a period of 4.0 hours previously measured in November 2009 (U=2).[7]
According to the survey carried out by the NEOWISE mission of NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, Wolfiana measures 8.488 and 8.976 kilometers in diameter and its surface has an albedo of 0.129 and 0.1153, respectively.[5][6]
The Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link assumes a standard albedo of 0.24 – derived from 8 Flora, the parent body of the Flora family – and calculates a diameter of 6.51 kilometers based on an absolute magnitude of 13.1.[3]
^ abcMasiero, Joseph R.; Grav, T.; Mainzer, A. K.; Nugent, C. R.; Bauer, J. M.; Stevenson, R.; et al. (August 2014). "Main-belt Asteroids with WISE/NEOWISE: Near-infrared Albedos". The Astrophysical Journal. 791 (2): 11. arXiv:1406.6645. Bibcode:2014ApJ...791..121M. doi:10.1088/0004-637X/791/2/121.
^ abPilcher, Frederick; Martinez, Luis (January 2013). "Rotation Period Determination for 827 Wolfiana". The Minor Planet Bulletin. 40 (1): 21. Bibcode:2013MPBu...40Q..21P. ISSN1052-8091.