276 Adelheid

Adelheid (minor planet designation: 276 Adelheid) is a dark Alauda asteroid from the outer region of the asteroid belt, approximately 121 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered by Austrian astronomer Johann Palisa at Vienna Observatory on 17 April 1888. The meaning of the asteroids's name is unknown.

Classification
Adelheid is a member of the Alauda family (902), a large family of typically bright carbonaceous asteroids and named after its parent body, 702 Alauda.

Physical characteristics
Photometric observations in 1992 gave a lightcurve with a period of 6.328 ± 0.012 hours and a brightness variation of 0.10 ± 0.02 in magnitude. The curve is regular with two maxima and minima.

In the Tholen classification, its spectrum has been characterized as that of an X-type asteroid, while polarimetric observations refined its classification to a primitive P-type.

Naming
Any reference of this minor planet's name to a person or occurrence is unknown.

Unknown meaning
Among the many thousands of named minor planets, Adelheid is one of 120 asteroids, for which no official naming citation has been published. All of these low-numbered asteroids have numbers between and  and were discovered between 1876 and the 1930s, predominantly by astronomers Auguste Charlois, Johann Palisa, Max Wolf and Karl Reinmuth.