253 Mathilde is an asteroid in the intermediate asteroid belt, about 50 kilometers in diameter, discovered by the Austrian astronomer Johann Palisa at Vienna Observatory on 12 November 1885. It follows a relatively elliptical orbit that takes more than four years to circle the Sun and rotates unusually slowly, taking 17.4 days to complete one turn on its axis; it is a primitive, carbon-rich C-type asteroid with a dark surface that reflects only about 4 percent of the sunlight falling on it.
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