50 Virginia

50 Virginia (pronounced /vərˈdʒɪnjə/) is a large, very dark Main belt asteroid. It was discovered by J. Ferguson on October 4, 1857. R. Luther found it independently on October 19, and his discovery was announced first. The reason for Virginia's name is not known. It is probably named after Verginia, the Roman noblewoman slain by her father, but it may alternatively have been named after the American state of Virginia.

References

1. ^ a b Using a spherical radius of 49.9 km; volume of a sphere * an assumed density of 2 g/cm³ yields a mass (m=d*v) of 1.04 × 1018 kg and an escape velocity (sqrt((2*g*m)/r)) of 52.7 m/s (190 km/h)
2. ^ *JPL Small-Body Database Browser
3. ^ Asteroid Data Sets