762 Pulcova

762 Pulcova

762 Pulcova is a main-belt asteroid that was found by Grigoriy N. Neujmin in 1913. It is named after the Pulkovo Observatory, which is near Saint Petersburg. Pulcova is 137 km wide and is a C-type asteroid. This means it is dark and made of carbonate material.

Observations of this asteroid in 2006 from Leura, Australia, gave us a light curve. It showed that Pulcova takes about 5.84 hours to rotate and its brightness changes a little during each rotation. This matches what scientists found before.

Satellite

Astronomers found a small moon around 762 Pulcova in 2000. The moon is about 15 kilometers wide and stays 800 kilometers from Pulcova. It takes 4 days to travel around Pulcova and is much dimmer than the asteroid. This was one of the first times scientists saw a moon around an asteroid.

Density

In 2000, someone thought Pulcova had a density of 1.8 g/cm³. This made it seem denser than two other space rocks. In 2008, another person thought the density might be only 0.90 g/cm³. This would mean it could be a loose pile of pieces instead of one solid object.