ASTEROIDS
Asteroid EROS
The asteroid is named after Hideo Itokawa, a father of Japan's space program
In 1801, the first of many planetary bodies between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter was discovered by Giuseppi Piazzi, an Italian astronomer. This body has a diameter of 940 kilometers (almost 600 miles), and is the largest of the asteroids. It was named Ceres after the protective goddess of Sicily. There are billions such objects, ranging in size from Ceres (940 km) to a few kms. The next two in size are named Pallas and Vesta. Ceres and Palla have a low albedo, while Vesta has a relatively high albedo and is sometimes visible to the unaided eye. In 1991, the Galileo spacecraft took a close-up image of 951 Gaspra, a stony S-type irregularly shaped asteroid, 19 km long and 11 km wide. It surface is covered to a depth of about 0.9 m with a loose, rocky, gray material called regolith. Eros, which can approach Earth to within 1 AU. is rod shaped.
They revolve counterclockwise around the Sun. Their average inclination to the ecliptic plane is 10 degrees. Although most are between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, they can range from inside Mercury to beyond Saturn.
There are two theories about their formation:
1. There was a planet between Mars and Jupiter which blew
up and the asteroids are the remnants.
2. They are early solar system material that never collected
into a single planet.
On February 12, 2001 NEAR Shoemaker (Near Earth Asteroid Rendez-vous) landed on the Asteroid Eros. For details, click here: Landing on Eros
Click below
Asteroids
Asteroids
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