Tucapel

Tucapel is a town and commune in the Arauco Province, Bío Bío Region, Chile. It was once a region of Araucanía named for the Tucapel River. The name of the region derived from the rehue and aillarehue of the Moluche people of the area between the Lebu and the Lleulleu Rivers, who were famed for their long resistance to the Spanish in the Arauco War. Tucapel is also the name of a famous leader from that region in the first resistance against the Spanish mentioned in Alonso de Ercilla's epic poem La Araucana. Formerly belonging to the Nuble Province, in the Department of Yungay. Near the town of Tucapel is the Plaza de San Diego de Tucapel. The capital of the commune is the town of Huépil, moving the municipality from Tucapel in 1967. In mapudungún its name means "To seize or to take by force".

The main economic activities of the commune are commerce, agriculture and forestry.

History

Tucapel is an old foundation in the country, originally part of the Rere Province, in which three La Frontera fortresses existed: Talcamávida, Yumbel and San Diego de Tucapel.

2013 Tucapel

2013 Tucapel, provisional designation 1971 UH₄, is a stony and eccentric asteroid from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, about 12 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered by Carlos Torres on exposures taken by J. Petit at the University of Chile's Cerro El Roble Astronomical Station on 22 October 1971.

The S-type asteroid orbits the Sun at a distance of 1.8–2.8 AU once every three and a half years (1,265 days). Its orbit shows an eccentricity of 0.23 and is tilted by 8 degrees to the plane of the ecliptic. It has a rotation period of 9.028 hours and an albedo in the range of 0.11–0.32, according to the to the surveys carried out by Akari and WISE/NEOWISE.

Named for one of the brave chiefs of the Mapuche, indigenous inhabitants of south-central Chile and southwestern Argentina, who, with his wife Gualeva, victoriously entered the city of Imperial. He died in 1560, fighting against the colonial Spaniards (also see Arauco War, Battle of Tucapel and Lautaro).

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