1076 Viola /ˈvaɪ.ələ/, ^[16] provisional designation 1926 TE, is a Nysian asteroid from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 22 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 5 October 1926, by German astronomer Karl Reinmuth at the Heidelberg Observatory in southwest Germany. ^[17] The asteroid was named after the flowering plant Viola. ^[3]

Viola is a non- family asteroid of the main belt's background population when applying the Hierarchical Clustering Method to its proper orbital elements. ^[5] The asteroid has also been classified as a member of the Nysa family ( 405), ^[4] the largest asteroid family of the main belt, consisting of stony and carbonaceous subfamilies. The family, named after 44 Nysa, is located near the Kirkwood gap (3:1 orbital resonance with Jupiter), a depleted zone that separates the central main belt.

Viola orbits the Sun in the inner asteroid belt at a distance of 2.1–2.8  AU once every 3 years and 11 months (1,422 days; semi-major axis of 2.47 AU). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.14 and an inclination of 3 ° with respect to the ecliptic. ^[1] The body's observation arc begins at Heidelberg in January 1951, or more than 24 years after its official discovery observation. ^[17]

In the Tholen classification, Viola is a rare F-type asteroid, while in the SMASS taxonomy, it is classified as a common, carbonaceous C-type. ^{[1] [4]}

In the 1980s, a rotational lightcurve of Viola was obtained from photometric observations by American astronomer Richard Binzel. Lightcurve analysis gave a well-defined rotation period of 7.336 hours with a brightness amplitude of 0.12 magnitude ( U=3). ^[15] A tentative period of 14.4 hours was measured by French amateur astronomer René Roy in January 2009, but later retracted from the LCDB ( U=n.a.). ^{[4] [18]}

According to the surveys carried out by the Infrared Astronomical Satellite IRAS, the Japanese Akari satellite and the NEOWISE mission of NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, Viola measures between 21.412 and 26.39 kilometers in diameter and its surface has an albedo between 0.032 and 0.0428. ^{[6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14]}

The Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link adopts the results obtained by IRAS, that is, an albedo of 0.0415 and a diameter of 22.63 kilometers based on an absolute magnitude of 12.30. ^{[4] [11]}

This minor planet was named after Viola, a genus of flowering plants within the violet family. The official naming citation was mentioned in The Names of the Minor Planets by Paul Herget in 1955 ( H 102). ^[3]

Due to his many discoveries, Karl Reinmuth submitted a large list of 66 newly named asteroids in the early 1930s. The list covered his discoveries with numbers between (1009) and (1200). This list also contained a sequence of 28 asteroids, starting with 1054 Forsytia, that were all named after plants, in particular flowering plants (also see list of minor planets named after animals and plants). ^[19]

• Asteroid Lightcurve Database (LCDB), query form ( info Archived 16 December 2017 at the Wayback Machine)
• Dictionary of Minor Planet Names, Google books
• Asteroids and comets rotation curves, CdR – Observatoire de Genève, Raoul Behrend
• Discovery Circumstances: Numbered Minor Planets (1)-(5000) – Minor Planet Center
• 1076 Viola at AstDyS-2, Asteroids—Dynamic Site
  • Ephemeris · Observation prediction · Orbital info · Proper elements · Observational info
• 1076 Viola at the JPL Small-Body Database
  • Close approach · Discovery · Ephemeris · Orbit diagram · Orbital elements · Physical parameters