89 Julia
Julia is a large main-belt asteroid that was discovered by French astronomer Édouard Stephan on August 6, 1866. This was first of his two asteroid discoveries; the other was 91 Aegina. 89 Julia is believed to be named after Saint Julia of Corsica. A stellar occultation by Julia was observed on December 20, 1985.
89 Julia is the parent body of the eponymous Julia family of asteroids. Observations of 89 Julia by the VLT's SPHERE instrument tentatively identified a crater 75 km in diameter in the southern hemisphere. The crater was tentatively named Nonza, referring to the commune on the island of Corsica. It is hypothesized an impact 30 to 120 million years ago by another body approximately 8 kilometers in diameter may have created the collisional family.
The spectrum of 89 Julia shows the signature of silicate rich minerals with possible indications of an abundant calcic clinopyroxene component. It is classified as an S-type asteroid. The asteroid has an estimated diameter of. Photometry from the Oakley Observatory during 2006 produced a lightcurve that indicated a sidereal rotation period of with an amplitude of in magnitude.
