Asteroids

Space Background with Welcome

Photo of the inner solar system with the asteroid belt depicted in white

All about Asteroids:

Asteroids were first discovered in 1801 by Giuseppe Piazzi, when a search for a missing planet was conducted based on Bode's Law. While Piazzi was searching for the planet, he happened upon the largest of teh asteroids in the asteroid belt and named it Ceres (see hubble photo below). Futher information on the discovery of asteroids can be found by visiting http://near.jhuapl.edu/eros/history/index.html . This web site is titled: A Brief Historical Account of the Discovery of the Asteroids. It was written by Ray Sterner.

Asteroids recieved their name from Sir William Hershel, who felt they had a star like quality. He derived the word asteroid from the greek aster which means star.

Asteroids are small, rocky planetoidal bodies orbiting the sun between Mars and Jupiter.

Asteroids are thought to be remainders of planets left over after the planets formed.

Types of Asteroids:

90% of asteroids can be divided into two groups based on albedo and color.

75% of all asteroids are the C-Type. they are extremely dark. These asteroids contain high amounts of carbon and some contain water.

16% of all asteroids are the S - type. They are of moderate albedo and reddish in color. Spectra indicates these asteroids contain iron and magnesium silicates mixed with pure nickel-iron.

5% of all asteroids are the M - type. They are of ambiguous spectrum and moderate albedos. they have no silica absorption bands so they may be metallic asteroids. They may be remnant cores of larger differentiated precursor bodies.

The remaning 4% are rare types

Eros

There is still much to be known about asteroids. The Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous or NEAR Launched on the 17^th of February, 1996. NEAR’s mission was to travel to the Asteroid Eros and orbit it for over a year. NEAR went into orbit around Eros on the 14^th of February, 200 and remained in orbit at various altitudes until the 12^th of February, 2001, when NEAR became the first spacecraft to touchdown on an asteroid. NEAR continued to transmit information until the 28^th of February, there has been no contact made since.

More about asteroids

22338 Janemojo, a very special asteroid!
more images (see also the Ida and Gaspra pages)
fact sheet from NSSDC
images from NSSDC
lots more info from Zeljko Lipanovic
the Near-Earth Asteroid Rendezvous Mission
more about the discovery of Eros, the first known near-Earth asteroid
Eros images from NEAR
more NEAR images of Mathilde
Keck II images of Vesta
NEAT, Near-Earth Asteroid Tracking Home Page
two pages about 4179 Toutatis
On-Line Asteroid Data
Vesta from LANL; a diagram of Vesta's history from B. Zellner (136k postscript)
More on the observations of Vesta and its significance from STScI
Geographos from LANL
1997 XF11, which will pass close to Earth in the year 2028 (from JPL)
Minor Planet Designations, search for asteroid names and numbers
various Minor Planet information from the MPC
Asteroid Nomenclature Table
Orbital elements from Dr E. Bowell of Lowell Observatory
Earth's strange companion, Asteroid 3753 Cruithne (1986 TO)

Recommended Reading on Asteroids:

Asteroids III, Edited by W. Bottke, A. Cellino, P. Paolicchi, and P. Binzel, University of Arizona Press, Tucson, 2002

The First Asteroid: Ceres, 1801-2001, C. Cunningham, Star Lab Press, Surfside, Florida, 2001

Asteroids : A History, C. Peebles, Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D.C., 2000

Asteroid: Earth Destroyer or New Frontier?, P. Barnes-Svarney, Plenum Press, New York, 1996

Asteroids II, Edited by R. Binzel, T, Gehrels, and M. Matthews, University of Arizona Press, Tucson, 1989

Asteroids : Their Nature and Utilization, C. Kowal, Halstead Press, New York, 1988

Asteroids - Dynamic site: This is the Asteroid Dynamic site. This site contains information on numbered and multiopposition asteroids.

Ceres as viewed from the Hubble Space Telescope

Eros in motion

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				*Asteroids*