Editing 253 Mathilde (section)

==Observation history==
[[File:Animation of NEAR Shoemaker trajectory.gif|thumb|left|Animation of NEAR Shoemaker trajectory from 19 February 1996 to 12 February 2001.<br />{{legend2|Magenta|[[NEAR Shoemaker]]}}; {{legend2|Lime| [[433 Eros]]}}; {{legend2|RoyalBlue|[[Earth]]}}; {{legend2|Cyan|253 Mathilde }}; {{legend2|Yellow|[[Sun]];}}]]

In 1880, Johann Palisa, the director of the Austrian Naval Observatory {{Obscode|538}}, was offered a position as an assistant at the newly completed [[Vienna Observatory]]. Although the job represented a demotion for Johann, it gave him access to the new {{Convert|27|in|mm|adj=on}} [[refractor]], the largest telescope in the world at that time. By this point Johann had already discovered 27 asteroids, and he would employ the Vienna {{Convert|27|in|mm|adj=on}} and {{Convert|12|in|mm|adj=on}} instruments to find an additional 94 asteroids before he retired.<ref>
{{cite web
 | last=Raab
 | first=Herbert
 | date=2002
 | url=http://www.astrometrica.at/Papers/Palisa.pdf
 | title=Johann Palisa, the most successful visual discoverer of
 | publisher=Astronomical Society of Linz
 | access-date=2007-08-27
 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070928170558/http://www.astrometrica.at/Papers/Palisa.pdf
 | archive-date=28 September 2007
 | url-status=dead
 | df=dmy-all
 }}
</ref>

Among his discoveries was the asteroid 253 Mathilde, found on 12 November 1885. The initial [[orbital elements]] of the asteroid were then computed by V. A. Lebeuf, another Austrian astronomer working at the [[Paris Observatory]].<ref name="NEAR_press"/> The name of the asteroid was suggested by Lebeuf, after Mathilde, the wife of [[Moritz Loewy]]&mdash;who was the vice director of the observatory in Paris.<ref name="moore">{{Cite book |last=Moore |first=Sir Patrick |author-link=Patrick Moore |title=The Wandering Astronomer |date=1999 |publisher=CRC Press |isbn=0-7503-0693-9 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/wanderingastrono0000moor/page/59 59]-61 |ol=OL6899638M}}</ref><ref name="NEAR_press">{{cite web
 | author=Savage, D.
 | author2=Young, L.
 | author3=Diller, G.
 | author4=Toulouse, A.
 | date=February 1996
 | url=http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/presskit/1996/NEAR_Press_Kit/NEARpk.txt
 | title=Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) Press Kit
 | publisher=NASA
 | access-date=2007-08-29
 | archive-date=19 March 2012
 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120319075326/http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/presskit/1996/NEAR_Press_Kit/NEARpk.txt
 | url-status=dead
 }}</ref>

In 1995, ground-based observations determined that Mathilde is a [[C-type asteroid]]. It was also found to have an unusually long period of rotation of 418 hours.<ref name="NEAR_press"/>

On 27 June 1997, the [[NEAR Shoemaker]] spacecraft passed within 1,212&nbsp;km of Mathilde while moving at a velocity of 9.93&nbsp;km/s. This close approach allowed the spacecraft to capture over 500 images of the surface,<ref name="flyby"/> and provided data for more accurate determinations of the asteroid's dimensions and mass (based on gravitational perturbation of the spacecraft).<ref name="Yeomans 1997"/> However, only one hemisphere of Mathilde was imaged during the fly-by.<ref name="aisr33">{{cite journal
 | last=Cheng | first=Andrew F.
 | title=Implications of the NEAR mission for internal structure of Mathilde and Eros
 | journal=Advances in Space Research | date=2004 | volume=33
 | issue=9 | pages=1558–1563
 | bibcode=2004AdSpR..33.1558C
 | doi=10.1016/S0273-1177(03)00452-6 | url=https://zenodo.org/record/997583
 }}</ref> This was only the third asteroid to be imaged from a nearby distance, following [[951 Gaspra]] and [[243 Ida]].