1230 Riceia

1230 Riceia, provisional designation, is a stony background asteroid from the central regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 6 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 9 October 1931, by German astronomer Karl Reinmuth at the Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory. The asteroid was named after Hugh Rice, amateur astronomer of New York and director of the Museum of Natural Sciences.

Orbit and classification
Riceia is a non-family asteroid from the main belt's background population. It orbits the Sun in the central asteroid belt at a distance of 2.1–3.0 AU once every 4 years and 1 month (1,507 days; semi-major axis of 2.57 AU). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.18 and an inclination of 11° with respect to the ecliptic.

The body's observation arc begins at Heidelberg on 17 October 1931, or eight days after its official discovery observation.

Physical characteristics
Riceia has been characterized as a stony S-type asteroid by Pan-STARRS photometric survey.

Rotation period and pole
In 2016, a rotational lightcurve of Riceia was modeled from photometric data from the Lowell Photometric Database. Lightcurve analysis gave a sidereal rotation period of 6.67317 hours as well as a spin axis of (37.0°, −63.0°) in ecliptic coordinates (λ, β).

Diameter and albedo
According to the survey carried out by the NEOWISE mission of NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, Riceia measures 6.19 kilometers in diameter and its surface has a high albedo of 0.318. The Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link assumes a standard albedo for stony asteroids of 0.20 and calculates a diameter of 7.46 kilometers based on an absolute magnitude of 13.0.

Naming
This minor planet was named after American amateur astronomer Hugh Rice, director of the Museum of Natural Sciences (possibly AMNH). The naming was proposed by Irving Meyer and endorsed by German astronomer Gustav Stracke who mentioned on a postcard in February 1937, that his American college, Meyer, who himself did not discover any asteroids, requested the naming after the city of Rutherford, where a private observatory was located at the time.

The official naming citation was mentioned in The Names of the Minor Planets by Paul Herget in 1955 (H 113).