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250 Bettina

main-belt asteroid

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 4, 2026
Entity authorityQ149280
Source-derived summary

250 Bettina is a large main belt asteroid that was discovered by Austrian astronomer Johann Palisa on September 3, 1885, in Vienna. It was named in honour of Baroness Bettina von Rothschild (née de Rothschild; 1858–1892), wife of Baron Albert von Rothschild who had bought the naming rights for £50. Based upon the spectrum, it is classified as an M-type asteroid.

In 1988, the asteroid was observed from the Collurania-Teramo Observatory, allowing a light curve to be produced that showed "an irregular behavior with a deeper minimum and a narrower maximum". The data showed a rotation period of 5.055 hours and a brightness variation of 0.17 ± 0.01 in magnitude. The ratio of the lengths of the major to minor axes for this asteroid were found to be 1.51 ± 0.03.

Editorial summary

“250 Bettina” enters the record as main-belt asteroid. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Bettina, main-belt and asteroid can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1885, 1858, 1892, 1988—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Bettina, main-belt and asteroid.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“250 Bettina” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Bettina, main-belt and asteroid provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 4, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q149280. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1885, 1858, 1892 and 1988.

Critical limits

A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
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The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “250 Bettina”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow 250 Bettina primary sources, 250 Bettina archive and Bettina research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “250 Bettina”?
  2. What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
  3. Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from 250 Bettina” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.