What is the name of the asteroid?
Q: What is the name of the asteroid?
A: The asteroid is called 324 Bamberga.
Q: When was it discovered?
A: It was discovered on February 25, 1892 in Vienna by Johann Palisa.
Q: How big is it compared to other asteroids?
A: 324 Bamberga is the 16th biggest asteroid in the Main asteroid belt with a diameter of over 200 km.
Q: Is it visible with binoculars?
A: Apart from the near-earth asteroid Eros, it was the last asteroid which is ever easily visible with binoculars to be found.
Q: How bright can it get at its rare near-perihelion oppositions?
A: At a rare opposition near perihelion Bamberga can reach a magnitude of +8.0, which is as bright as Saturn's moon Titan.
Q: How often do these near-perihelion oppositions occur?
A: These near-perihelion oppositions happen on a regular cycle every twenty-two years.
Q: Where does it rank among other main belt asteroids in terms of brightness?
A: Overall Bamberga is the tenth brightest main belt asteroid after Vesta, Pallas, Ceres, Iris, Hebe, Juno, Melpomene, Eunomia and Flora.
