This minor planet was named after the genus of Asian shrubs and trees, Petunia. This genus of flowering plants belongs to the Theaceae (tea family). The prominent ornamental greenhouse shrubs show glossy evergreen leaves and roselike flowers. The naming was mentioned in The Names of the Minor PlanetsbyPaul Herget in 1955 (H 92).[3] Only a minority of minor planets are named after plants.
Due to his many discoveries, Karl Reinmuth submitted a large list of 66 newly named asteroids in the early 1930s. The list covered his discoveries with numbers between (1009) and (1200). This list also contained a sequence of 28 asteroids, starting with this asteroid, that were all named after plants, in particular flowering plants(also see list of minor planets named after animals and plants).[3]
In August 2000, a rotational lightcurveofCamelia was obtained from photometric observations by Brian Warner at the Palmer Divide Observatory (716) in Colorado. The originally published lightcurve analysis gave a wrong rotation periodof5.391±0.02 hours with a brightness variation of 0.32±0.02magnitude (U=0).[12] In July 2010, and with the availability of improved analysis tools and techniques along with the experience gained over more than a decade, Warner reviewed and recalibrated the original data set and determined a period of at least 150±10 hours with an amplitude of more than 0.30 (U=1+).[10][a] With such a long period, Camelia is a slow rotator. While the slowest rotators have periods above 1000 hours, the vast majority of asteroids have a much shorter rotation period of 2.2 to 20 hours.
According to the surveys carried out by the Japanese Akari satellite, the Infrared Astronomical Satellite IRAS, and the NEOWISE mission of NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE), Camelia measures (64.36±1.01), (73.73±1.5) and (91.548±0.450) kilometers in diameter, and its surface has an albedo of (0.056±0.002), (0.0429±0.002) and (0.025±0.004), respectively.[7][8][9] The Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link derives an albedo of 0.0357 and a diameter of 73.63 km based on an absolute magnitude of 10.71.[13]
Over the course of a few years, the WISE team has also published several smaller mean-diameters of (57.808±23.443 km), (60.832±20.524 km) and (66.460±0.577 km) with corresponding albedos of (0.044±0.040), (0.043±0.029) and (0.053±0.007).[6][13]
^ abcUsui, Fumihiko; Kuroda, Daisuke; Müller, Thomas G.; Hasegawa, Sunao; Ishiguro, Masateru; Ootsubo, Takafumi; et al. (October 2011). "Asteroid Catalog Using Akari: AKARI/IRC Mid-Infrared Asteroid Survey". Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan. 63 (5): 1117–1138. Bibcode:2011PASJ...63.1117U. doi:10.1093/pasj/63.5.1117. (online, AcuA catalog p. 153)
^ abcMasiero, Joseph R.; Mainzer, A. K.; Grav, T.; Bauer, J. M.; Cutri, R. M.; Nugent, C.; et al. (November 2012). "Preliminary Analysis of WISE/NEOWISE 3-Band Cryogenic and Post-cryogenic Observations of Main Belt Asteroids". The Astrophysical Journal Letters. 759 (1): 5. arXiv:1209.5794. Bibcode:2012ApJ...759L...8M. doi:10.1088/2041-8205/759/1/L8.