Asteroids

Bulay-og, Jhona Pearl O.

BSE-Gen.Science
 Asteroids (Minor Planets)
- many thousands of bodies
- orbit the sun within the planetary
system
- range from a few kilometers
in a diameter up to nearly a thousand
kilometers in diameter.
DISCOVERY OF ASTEROIDS !
 Giuseppe Piazzi (Sicilian Astronomer)
- he discovered the first asteroid on
January 1, 1801
 Ceres
- a new planet found by Piazzi
- has an elliptical orbit with a semi-major
axis of 2.77 AU and an orbital period of
time 4.62 years
- more than thousand times fainter than
Mars and Jupiter
 Friedrich Gauss

- Mathematician
- who used Piazzi’s observation
and gave the he gave the
measurement and period.
 The mass of all the asteroids
is less than that of Earth’s
moon.
But despite their size,
asteroids can be Where we can find Asteroids in our Solar
System?
dangerous.
- can be found anywhere in the
Solar System
- between Mars and Jupiter
known as the,
“ Asteroid Belt”.
 Asteroid Belt
 COMPOSITION OF ASTEROIDS

-- are made of rock, but some

are composed of metals and
other materials.
Classes of Asteroids
- reflectance spectra
1. C-type
2. S-type
3. M-type
4. V-type
 C-type
- three-fourths of asteroids
- very dark
- no strong absorption
features due to minerals

 S-type
- an absorption features
due to minerals
 M-type
- have reflectance spectra
like those metallic iron
and nickel
 V-type (Vesta)
- strong absorption feature
due to pyroxene
 Asteroid Gaspra
- elongated shape that measures
20 by 12 by 11 km.
- has a softened-looking surface

 Asteroid Ida and its Satellite, Dactyl

 Asteroid Mathilde
- pocked with craters and has
a very dark surface
- rubble pile
(pulverized by impacts)
 The Sizes of Near-Earth Asteroids
-
EXCEPTIONAL
ASTEROIDS
 Ceres (Dwarf Planet)
- the largest object in the asteroid
belt, which lies between the
orbits of Mars and Jupiter.
 2 Pallas
- the second asteroid to have been
discovered (after Ceres), and it is
one of the largest asteroids in the
Solar System.
- 7% of the mass of the asteroid belt
- third-most-massive asteroid
- 10-30% less massive than Vesta.
 4 Vesta
- is the brightest asteroid visible from Earth
- maximum distance from the Sun is slightly greater
than the minimum distance of Ceres from the Sun
 10 Hygeia

- the largest of the class of dark

C-type asteroids with a
carbonaceous surface
 704 Interamnia
- very little studied body
- largest of the F-type asteroids,
- very few details (internal
composition or shape)  511 Davida
- no light curve analysis
- a C-type asteroids
- one of the few main belt
asteroids whose shape has
been determined by ground-
based visual observation
 65 Cybele
- largest asteroids in the solar
system and located at the outer
asteroid belt
 15 Eunomia
- an X-type asteroids
- very large asteroid in the
inner asteroid belt
- largest of the stony (S-type)
asteroids
- 8th to 12th largest main-belt
asteroid overall
 Uses of Asteroid in Astronomy
1. They will tell us about the origin of our
Solar System.
2. They will help us understand more
about the origin of life.
3. We may want to mine near-earth
asteroids for metals.