511 Davida is the seventh largest known asteroid, discovered in 1903 by the American astronomer Raymond Smith Dugan (1878–1940). It orbits the Sun in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

 

The accompanying animation was made from observations of Davida by the Keck II Telescope in Hawaii. The pictures are among the most detailed ground-based observations ever made of an object in the asteroid belt.

 

Davida's north pole faces the camera, so only the northern hemisphere of the rock is visible. At least two flat facets can be seen on its surface. Dark features may be impact craters, some other sort of surface markings, or artifacts of image processing.

 

diameter	323 km
spectral class	C
rotation period	5.17 hours
semimajor axis	3.171 AU
perihelion	2.591 AU
aphelion	3.750 AU
eccentricity	0.183
inclination	15.94°