Asteroid 6 Hebe will reach opposition (the point at which it is directly opposite the Sun when observed from the Earth) at 4.46 pm GMT on Monday 25 August 2025, when it will also be at the closest point on its orbit to the Earth, 1.03 AU (i.e. 1.03 times as far from the Earth as the Sun, or about 153 787 000 km), and be completely illuminated by the Sun. While it is not obvious to the naked eye observer, asteroids have phases just like those of the Moon; being further from the Sun than the Earth, 6 Hebe is 'full' when directly opposite the Sun. As 6 Hebe is only about 205 km in diameter, it will not be visible to the naked eye, but with a maximum Apparent Magnitude (luminosity) of 7.6 at opposition, it should be visible in the Constellation of Aquarius to viewers equipped with a good pair of binoculars or small telescope. Because 6 Hebe is directly opposite the Sun in the sky, it will be best observed at around midnight local time from anywhere on Earth.
Asteroid 6 Hebe was discovered on 1 July 1847 by Prussian amateur astronomer Karl Ludwig Hencke in the town of Driesen (now Drezdenko in Poland). As implied by the '6' in its modern designation, it was the sixth asteroid ever detected. It was given the name Hebe, in reference to the Greek goddess of youth by Carl Friedrich Gauss, director of the Göttingen Observatory.
6 Hebe has a 1380 day (3.78 year) orbital period and an eccentric orbit tilted at an angle of 1.94° to the plane of the Solar System, which takes it from 1.94 AU from the Sun (i.e. 194% of the average distance at which the Earth orbits the Sun) to 2.92 AU from the Sun (i.e. 292% of the average distance at which the Earth orbits the Sun). As an asteroid that never comes within 1.666 AU of the Sun and has an average orbital distance less than 3.2 AU from the Sun, 4 Vesta is classed as a Main Belt Asteroid.
6 Hebe is unusually dense for a large asteroid (denser than the Moon), containing about 0.5% of the mass of the Main Asteroid Belt, despite measuring only 205 km by 185 km by 170 km. This suggests that it is a solid object, unlike many large asteroids which are loosely connected 'rubble piles'.
6 Hebe lies close to the '3:1 Kirkwood Gap' in the Main Asteroid Belt, an area where any asteroids present would have a 3:1 resonance with Jupiter (i.e. complete three orbits for every one orbit of Jupiter). This is an unstable area, devoid of asteroids, as any body in this area would likely be flung out by the tidal influence of Jupiter. Because of this, and its spectral profile (i.e. the specific wavelengths of light it reflects, which directly relates to its mineralogy, 6 Hebe is thought to be a likely parent body for H chondrites and IIE iron meteorites, two of the most common meteorite types on Earth, as well as the Near Earth Asteroids (4953) 1990 MU and 2007 LE. Furthermore, 6 Hebe appears to have an orbital and spectral relationship with a group of other Main Belt Asteroids, including bodies such as 695 Bella, 1166 Sakuntala, and 1607 Mavis which lie on the other side of the Kirkwood Gap, which have been tentatively identified as the 'Hebe Family' of asteroids, with a presumed common origin, either in a collision between two large bodies, or possibly from a single large body close to the Kirkwood Gap which was pulled apart by Jupiter's tidal influence.
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