Flora

Flora is an S-type asteroid with a diameter of 146 km, orbiting at 2.20 AU in the inner asteroid belt. It is the parent body and largest member of the Flora family — one of the largest asteroid families, containing thousands of fragments from ancient collisions. Flora's surface is composed of silicate rock and nickel-iron metal, and the family may be a significant source of L chondrite meteorites. Flora orbits close to the 2:1 mean-motion resonance with Mars and near the ν₆ secular resonance, which can gradually push fragments from the Flora family onto Earth-crossing orbits — making the Flora family a possible source of near-Earth asteroids and potentially linked to the Chicxulub impactor that caused the dinosaur extinction.

Flora reaches about magnitude 8.1 at favorable oppositions, requiring binoculars or a small telescope. Its brightness typically ranges from magnitude 8 to 10. Being in the inner asteroid belt, Flora moves relatively quickly against background stars, making motion detection easier over consecutive nights. Best observed in the months around opposition, which occurs roughly every 14 months. Its position near the ecliptic means it transits through familiar zodiacal constellations. Use a planetarium app or ephemeris service to identify its current position.

Flora was discovered on October 18, 1847 by English astronomer John Russell Hind at the George Bishop Observatory in London — the same year and observatory where he also discovered Iris. Flora was the eighth asteroid discovered and was named after the Roman goddess of flowers and spring. The Flora asteroid family was among the first dynamical families recognized by Japanese astronomer Kiyotsugu Hirayama in 1918, making it important in understanding how asteroid families form through collisional disruption.