444 Gyptis
Encyclopedia
444 Gyptis is a very large main-belt
Asteroid belt
The asteroid belt is the region of the Solar System located roughly between the orbits of the planets Mars and Jupiter. It is occupied by numerous irregularly shaped bodies called asteroids or minor planets...

 asteroid
Asteroid
Asteroids are a class of small Solar System bodies in orbit around the Sun. They have also been called planetoids, especially the larger ones...

. It is classified as a C-type asteroid
C-type asteroid
C-type asteroids are carbonaceous asteroids. They are the most common variety, forming around 75% of known asteroids, and an even higher percentage in the outer part of the asteroid belt beyond 2.7 AU, which is dominated by this asteroid type...

 and is probably composed of carbonaceous material
Carbonaceous chondrite
Carbonaceous chondrites or C chondrites are a class of chondritic meteorites comprising at least 7 known groups and many ungrouped meteorites. They include some of the most primitive known meteorites...

.

It was discovered by J. Coggia
Jérôme Eugène Coggia
Jérôme Eugène Coggia was a 19th-century French astronomer.Working in Marseille, he discovered a number of comets, including the bright "Coggia's Comet" . The periodic comet 27P/Crommelin was previously called "Comet Pons-Coggia-Winnecke-Forbes". In 1916 he was awarded the Lalande Prize of the...

 on March 31, 1899, in Marseilles.

In 2004, Kochetova estimated Gyptis to have a mass of 1.25 kg with a high density of 5.53 g/cm³.

Observations of an occultation
Occultation
An occultation is an event that occurs when one object is hidden by another object that passes between it and the observer. The word is used in astronomy . It can also refer to any situation wherein an object in the foreground blocks from view an object in the background...

 on October 14, 2007, produced six chords
Chord (astronomy)
In the field of astronomy the term chord typically refers to a line crossing an object which is formed during an occultation event. By taking accurate measurements of the start and end times of the event, in conjunction with the known location of the observer and the object's orbit, the length of...

indicating an ellipsoid of 179×150 km.

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