67 Asia


Asia is a large main belt asteroid. It was discovered by English astronomer N. R. Pogson on April 17, 1861, from the Madras Observatory. Pogson chose the name to refer both to Asia, a Titaness in Greek mythology, and to the continent of Asia, because the asteroid was the first to be discovered from that continent.
This object is orbiting the Sun with a period of, a semimajor axis of, and an eccentricity of 0.185. It has a 2:1 commensurability with Mars, having an orbital period double that of the planet. The orbital plane lies at an inclination of 6.0° to the plane of the ecliptic. This is a stony S-type asteroid with a cross-sectional size of 61 km, Photometry from the Oakley Observatory during 2006 produced a lightcurve that indicated a sidereal rotation period of with an amplitude of in magnitude.