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253 Mathilde
253 Mathilde is an asteroid in the intermediate asteroid belt, approximately 50 kilometers in diameter, that was discovered by Austrian astronomer Johann Palisa at Vienna Observatory on 12 November 1885. It has a relatively elliptical orbit that requires more than four years to circle the Sun. This tumbling asteroid has an unusually slow rate of rotation, requiring 17.4 days to complete a 360° revolution about its axis. It is a primitive C-type asteroid, which means the surface has a high proportion of carbon; giving it a dark surface that reflects only 4% of the light that falls on it. Mathilde was visited by the NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft during June 1997, on its way to asteroid 433 Eros. During the short flyby, the spacecraft imaged a hemisphere of the asteroid, revealing many large craters that had gouged out depressions in the surface. It was the first carbonaceous asteroid to be explored and, until 21 Lutetia was visited in 2010, it was the largest a ...
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NEAR Shoemaker
''Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous – Shoemaker'' (''NEAR Shoemaker''), renamed after its 1996 launch in honor of planetary scientist Eugene Merle Shoemaker, Eugene Shoemaker, was a Robotic spacecraft, robotic space probe designed by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory for NASA to study the near-Earth asteroid 433 Eros, Eros from close orbit over a period of a year. It was the first spacecraft to orbit an asteroid and land on it successfully. In February 2000, the mission closed in on the asteroid and orbited it. On February 12, 2001, Shoemaker touched down on the asteroid and was terminated just over two weeks later. The primary scientific objective of ''NEAR'' was to return data on the bulk properties, composition, mineralogy, morphology, internal mass distribution, and magnetic field of Eros. Secondary objectives include studies of regolith properties, interactions with the solar wind, possible current activity as indicated by dust or gas, and the asteroi ...
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List Of Tumblers (small Solar System Bodies)
This is a list of tumblers, that is, small Solar System bodiess or moons that do not rotate in a fairly constant manner with a constant period. Instead of rotating around a constant axis or around an axis that itself moves evenly, they appear to tumble (see Poinsot's ellipsoid for an explanation). For true tumbling, the three moments of inertia must be different. If two are equal, then the axis of rotation will simply precess in a circle. As of 2018, there are 3 natural satellites and 198 confirmed or likely tumblers out of a total of nearly 800,000 discovered small Solar System bodies. The data is sourced from the "Lightcurve Data Base" (LCDB). The tumbling of a body can be caused by the torque from asymmetrically emitted radiation known as the YORP effect. Note that the rotation periods given below are apparent periods and are not constant for a tumbler. There is another definition of rotation, sometimes called intrinsic rotation, that relates to how the point on the object wh ...
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951 Gaspra
951 Gaspra is an S-type asteroid, S-type asteroid that orbits very close to the inner edge of the asteroid belt. Gaspra was discovered by Russian astronomer G. N. Neujmin in 1916. Neujmin named it after Gaspra, a Black Sea retreat that was visited by his contemporaries, such as Maxim Gorky, Gorky and Tolstoy. Gaspra was the first asteroid ever to be closely approached when it was visited by the ''Galileo spacecraft, Galileo'' spacecraft, which flew by on its way to Jupiter on 29 October 1991. Physical characteristics Apart from a multitude of small craters, Gaspra has half a dozen large flat areas and concavities. One of these flat areas, Dunne Regio, is a area that is flat to within . It is uncertain whether these are the result of impacts or whether they are instead facets formed when Gaspra broke off its parent asteroid. In the weak, lopsided gravity of Gaspra, impact craters would naturally take on such flat, lopsided shapes, making this determination difficult. The flat fac ...
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Moritz Loewy
Maurice (Moritz) Loewy (15 April 1833 – 15 October 1907) was a French astronomer. Loewy was born in Vienna.According to investigations by Anneliese Schnell (''Maurice Loewy and the equatorial Coudé in Vienna'', Astronomische Nachrichten, Vol. 330, Issue 6, p. 552-55, he was born in Vienna, because this city is, e.g., given in a French translation of his birth certificate. Vienna as his birthplace is also given in the obituaries, in most of the large encyclopedias, and in other sources. Some sources indicate, obviously wrongly, Bratislava, Pressburg or Marienbad as his place of birth. Loewy's Jewish parents moved to Vienna in 1841 to escape the antisemitism of their home town. Loewy became an assistant at the Vienna Observatory, working on celestial mechanics. However, the institutions of Austria-Hungary did not permit a Jew to advance to a senior position without renouncing his faith and embracing Catholicism. The director of the observatory Karl L. Littrow was a corresponde ...
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Paris Observatory
The Paris Observatory (, ), a research institution of the Paris Sciences et Lettres University, is the foremost astronomical observatory of France, and one of the largest astronomical centres in the world. Its historic building is on the Left Bank of the Seine in central Paris, but most of the staff work on a satellite campus in Meudon, a suburb southwest of Paris. The Paris Observatory was founded in 1667. Construction was completed by the early 1670s and coincided with a major push for increased science, and the founding of the Royal Academy of Sciences. King Louis XIV's minister of finance organized a "scientific powerhouse" to increase understanding of astronomy, maritime navigation, and science in general. Through the centuries the Paris Observatory has continued in support of astronomical activities, and in the 21st century connects multiple sites and organizations, supporting astronomy and science, past and present. Constitution Administratively, it is a '' grand étab ...
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Orbital Elements
Orbital elements are the parameters required to uniquely identify a specific orbit. In celestial mechanics these elements are considered in two-body systems using a Kepler orbit. There are many different ways to mathematically describe the same orbit, but certain schemes are commonly used in astronomy and orbital mechanics. A real orbit and its elements change over time due to gravitational Perturbation (astronomy), perturbations by other objects and the effects of general relativity. A Kepler orbit is an idealized, mathematical approximation of the orbit at a particular time. When viewed from an inertial frame, two orbiting bodies trace out distinct trajectories. Each of these trajectories has its Focus (geometry), focus at the common center of mass. When viewed from a non-inertial frame centered on one of the bodies, only the trajectory of the opposite body is apparent; Keplerian elements describe these non-inertial trajectories. An orbit has two sets of Keplerian elements depe ...
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Refractor
A refracting telescope (also called a refractor) is a type of optical telescope that uses a lens as its objective to form an image (also referred to a dioptric telescope). The refracting telescope design was originally used in spyglasses and astronomical telescopes but is also used for long-focus camera lenses. Although large refracting telescopes were very popular in the second half of the 19th century, for most research purposes, the refracting telescope has been superseded by the reflecting telescope, which allows larger apertures. A refractor's magnification is calculated by dividing the focal length of the objective lens by that of the eyepiece. Refracting telescopes typically have a lens at the front, then a long tube, then an eyepiece or instrumentation at the rear, where the telescope view comes to focus. Originally, telescopes had an objective of one element, but a century later, two and even three element lenses were made. Refracting telescopes use technology tha ...
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Animation Of NEAR Shoemaker Trajectory
Animation is a filmmaking technique whereby image, still images are manipulated to create Motion picture, moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on cel, transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Animation has been recognised as an artistic medium, specifically within the Entertainment#Industry, entertainment industry. Many animations are either traditional animations or computer animations made with computer-generated imagery (CGI). Stop motion animation, in particular claymation, has continued to exist alongside these other forms. Animation is contrasted with live action, although the two do not exist in isolation. Many moviemakers have produced Live-action animation, films that are a hybrid of the two. As CGI increasingly Photorealism, approximates photographic imagery, filmmakers can easily Compositing, composite 3D animations into their film rather than using practical effects for showy visual effects (VFX). ...
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List Of Minor Planets And Comets Visited By Spacecraft
The following tables list all minor planets and comets that have been visited by robotic spacecraft. List of minor planets visited by spacecraft A total of 19 minor planets (asteroids, dwarf planets, and Kuiper belt objects) have been visited by space probes. natural satellite, Moons (not directly orbiting the Sun) and planets are not minor planets and thus are not included in the table below. File:Small Asteroids and Comets Visited by Spacecraft.jpg, Minor planets and comets visited by spacecraft as of 2019 (except Pluto, Ceres, and Vesta), to scale File:Asteroidsscale.jpg, The comparative sizes of the first eight asteroids visited by spacecraft Incidental flybys In addition to the above listed objects, three asteroids have been imaged by spacecraft at distances too large to resolve features (over 100,000 km). List of comets visited by spacecraft Incidental flybys Spacecraft visited by comets Comet C/2013 A1 passed close by planet Mars in October 20 ...
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21 Lutetia
21 Lutetia is a large M-type asteroid in the main asteroid belt. It measures about 100 kilometers in diameter (120 km along its major axis). It was discovered in 1852 by Hermann Goldschmidt, and is named after Lutetia, the Latin name of Paris. Lutetia has an irregular shape and is heavily cratered, with the largest impact crater reaching 45 km in diameter. The surface is geologically heterogeneous and is intersected by a system of grooves and scarps, which are thought to be fractures. It has a high overall bulk density, suggesting that it is made of metal-rich rock. The ''Rosetta'' probe passed within of Lutetia in July 2010. It was the largest asteroid visited by a spacecraft until ''Dawn'' arrived at Vesta in July 2011, and it is currently the 3rd largest asteroid to have ever been imaged in high quality by a spacecraft (after Vesta and Ceres). Discovery and exploration Lutetia was discovered on 15 November 1852, by Hermann Goldschmidt from the balcon ...
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433 Eros
433 Eros is a stony asteroid of the Amor group, and the first discovered, and second-largest near-Earth object. It has an elongated shape and a volume-equivalent diameter of approximately . Visited by the NEAR Shoemaker space probe in 1998, it became the first asteroid ever studied from its own orbit. The asteroid was discovered by German astronomer C. G. Witt at the Berlin Observatory on 13 August 1898 in an eccentric orbit between Mars and Earth. It was later named after Eros, a god from Greek mythology, the son of Aphrodite. He is identified with the planet Venus. History Discovery Eros was discovered on 13 August 1898 by Carl Gustav Witt at Berlin Urania Observatory and Auguste Charlois at Nice Observatory and temporarily labeled D.Q. Witt was taking a two-hour exposure of beta Aquarii to secure astrometric positions of asteroid 185 Eunike. Name Eros is named after the Greek god of love, Erōs. It was the first minor planet to be given a male name; the b ...
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NEAR Shoemaker
''Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous – Shoemaker'' (''NEAR Shoemaker''), renamed after its 1996 launch in honor of planetary scientist Eugene Shoemaker, was a robotic space probe designed by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory for NASA to study the near-Earth asteroid Eros from close orbit over a period of a year. It was the first spacecraft to orbit an asteroid and land on it successfully. In February 2000, the mission closed in on the asteroid and orbited it. On February 12, 2001, Shoemaker touched down on the asteroid and was terminated just over two weeks later. The primary scientific objective of ''NEAR'' was to return data on the bulk properties, composition, mineralogy, morphology, internal mass distribution, and magnetic field of Eros. Secondary objectives include studies of regolith properties, interactions with the solar wind, possible current activity as indicated by dust or gas, and the asteroid spin state. This data was used to help understand th ...
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