372 Palma is one of the largest main-belt asteroids. It was discovered by French astronomer Auguste Charlois on August 19, 1893, in Nice. The name is thought to come from the capital city of Mallorca, an island of the Balearic Islands (Spain), which is located south of France. It is one of seven of Charlois's discoveries that were expressly named by the Astromomisches Rechen-Institut (Astronomical Calculation Institute).
This object is orbiting the Sun at a distance of with a moderate eccentricity (ovalness) of 0.26 and an orbital period of 5.59 years. The orbital plane is inclined at an angle of 23.8° relative to the plane of the ecliptic. It is classified as a B-type asteroid and is spinning with a rotation period of 8.567 hours.
Since 2000, 372 Palma has been observed 14 times in an asteroid occultation event, a number of which produced multiple chords revealing the asteroid's size and shape. It was observed occulting the radio galaxy 0141+268 on May 15, 2017, which yielded a diameter estimate of . On September 13, 2018, it was revealed to be 120 miles long (193 kilometers long).
See also List of exceptional asteroids
References
External links Asteroid 372 Palma / Andromeda Galaxy Transit (19 Oct 2011)