24 Themis

24 Themis is one of the largest main-belt asteroids. It is also the largest member of the Themistian asteroid family. It was discovered by Annibale de Gasparis on 5 April 1853. It is named after Themis, the personification of natural law and divine order in Greek mythology.

Discovery and observations

24 Themis was discovered on 5 April 1853 by Annibale de Gasparis of Naples, though it was given its name by fellow Italian astronomer Angelo Secchi. The asteroid was named after Themis, the Greek goddess of law. Gravitational perturbations in the orbit of Themis were used to calculate the mass of Jupiter as early as 1875.

On 24 December 1975, 24 Themis had a close encounter with 2296 Kugultinov with a minimum distance of 0.016 AU (2.4×10^⁶ km). By analyzing the perturbation of Kugultinov's orbit due to the gravitational pull of Themis, the mass of Themis was determined to be approximately 6989289000000000000♠2.89×10⁻¹¹ solar masses (6994961999999999999♠9.62×10⁻⁶ Earth masses).

Orbit and rotation

Themis

Themis /ˈθiːmᵻs/ (Greek: Θέμις) is an ancient Greek Titaness. She is described as "of good counsel", and is the personification of divine order, law, natural law and custom. Themis means "divine law" rather than human ordinance, literally "that which is put in place", from the Greek verb títhēmi (τίθημι), meaning "to put".

To the ancient Greeks she was originally the organizer of the "communal affairs of humans, particularly assemblies".Moses Finley remarked of themis, as the word was used by Homer in the 8th century BCE, to evoke the social order of the 10th- and 9th-century Greek Dark Ages:

Finley adds, "There was themis—custom, tradition, folk-ways, mores, whatever we may call it, the enormous power of 'it is (or is not) done'. The world of Odysseus had a highly developed sense of what was fitting and proper."

Mythology

The personification of abstract concepts is characteristic of the Greeks. The ability of the goddess Themis to foresee the future enabled her to become one of the Oracles of Delphi, which in turn led to her establishment as the goddess of divine justice.

Themis (hypothetical moon)

On April 28, 1905, William H. Pickering, who had seven years earlier discovered Phoebe, announced the discovery of a tenth satellite of Saturn, which he promptly named Themis. The photographic plates on which it supposedly appeared, thirteen in all, spanned a period between April 17 and July 8, 1904. However, no other astronomer has ever confirmed Pickering's claim.

Pickering attempted to compute an orbit, which showed a fairly high inclination (39.1° to the ecliptic), fairly large eccentricity (0.23) and a semi-major axis (1,457,000 kilometres (905,000 mi)) slightly less than that of Hyperion. The period was supposedly 20.85 days, with prograde motion.

Pickering estimated the diameter at 61 kilometres (38 mi), but since he also gave 68 kilometres (42 mi) as the diameter of Phoebe, he was clearly overestimating the albedo; using the modern figure for Phoebe gives Themis a diameter of 200 kilometres (120 mi).

Oddly, in April 1861, Hermann Goldschmidt had also believed that he had discovered a new satellite of Saturn between Titan and Hyperion, which he called Chiron. Chiron also does not exist (however, the name was used much later for the comet/asteroid 2060 Chiron).

Themis (disambiguation)

Themis is one of the original Oracle Titans in Greek mythology.

Themis can also refer to

Space

Technical, Educational

Medicine

Fiction

The Royal Navy frigate HMS Themis served as the fictional backdrop for British naval officer Charles Hayden, a heroic figure created by S. Thomas Russell in his Napoleonic era naval novels, including Under Enemy Colors,' (2007)' A Battle Won, (2010) and Take, Burn or Destroy (2012).