According to The Names of the Minor Planets by Paul Herget in 1955, and adopted by Lutz Schmadel in the Dictionary of Minor Planet Names, this minor planet was named after the Norse goddess described as the "incarnation of the nature", and as "a seer who knows the origin and the destination of all things" (H 87).[2]
The discoverer, Max Wolf, likely adopted the name from Wagner's opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen, which is loosely based on figures from the Norse sagas. In Wagner's Ring, the character Erda (Wagner) [de], named after the Old High German word for "Earth", is the goddess of wisdom, fate and Earth. She is the world's wisest woman, the mother of the three Norns and of the valkyrie (shieldmaid) Brunhild, whose father is the norse chief god Odin (Wotan). Wagner, in turn, adopted the name from the treatise Deutsche Mythologie by Jacob Grimm (1785–1863) and other sources. Erda combines attributes of both, Urðr (wisdom and fate) and Jörð (the personification of Earth).
In June 2006, a rotational lightcurve of Erda was obtained from photometric observations by David Higgins at Hunters Hill Observatory (E14), Australia, and by Rui Gonçalves at Linhaceira Observatory (938) in Portugal. Lightcurve analysis gave a well-defined rotation period of 4.6897±0.0003 hours with a brightness variation of 0.27±0.02magnitude, significantly higher than previous observations had measured (U=3). The observers also found no indication of a previously speculated companion.[9]
The result supersedes observations from July 2001, when both Robert Stephens and Laurent Bernasconi determined a period of 4.69±0.01 and 4.69±0.05 hours with an amplitude of 0.05±0.01 and 0.06±0.03 magnitude, respectively.[11][12]
Diameter and albedo
According to the survey carried out by the NEOWISE mission of NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE), the Infrared Astronomical Satellite IRAS, and the Japanese Akari satellite, Erda measures (28.309±1.544), (36.54±1.8) and (37.84±0.45) kilometers in diameter and its surface has an albedo of (0.319±0.060), (0.2300±0.025) and (0.232±0.007), respectively.[6][7][8] The Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link derives an albedo of 0.1942 and a diameter of 36.26 kilometers based on an absolute magnitude of 9.6.[13] An alternative mean-diameter measurement published by the WISE team gives (51.074±1.760 km) with an albedo of (0.120±0.007).[5][13] On 17 April 2010, an asteroid occultation gave a best-fit ellipse dimension of 36.00 × 36.0 kilometers, while a second observation on 15 September 2014, measured an ellipse of 38.00 × 38.0 kilometers These timed observations are taken when the asteroid passes in front of a distant star.[5]
^ abcMasiero, Joseph R.; Mainzer, A. K.; Grav, T.; Bauer, J. M.; Cutri, R. M.; Nugent, C.; et al. (November 2012). "Preliminary Analysis of WISE/NEOWISE 3-Band Cryogenic and Post-cryogenic Observations of Main Belt Asteroids". The Astrophysical Journal Letters. 759 (1): 5. arXiv:1209.5794. Bibcode:2012ApJ...759L...8M. doi:10.1088/2041-8205/759/1/L8.
^ abcUsui, Fumihiko; Kuroda, Daisuke; Müller, Thomas G.; Hasegawa, Sunao; Ishiguro, Masateru; Ootsubo, Takafumi; et al. (October 2011). "Asteroid Catalog Using Akari: AKARI/IRC Mid-Infrared Asteroid Survey". Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan. 63 (5): 1117–1138. Bibcode:2011PASJ...63.1117U. doi:10.1093/pasj/63.5.1117. (online, AcuA catalog p. 153)