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Asteroid Pair
An asteroid pair, or (if more than one body) an asteroid cluster, are asteroids which at some point in the past had very small relative velocities, and are typically formed either by a collisional break-up of a parent body, or from binary asteroids which became gravitationally unbound and are now following similar but different orbits around the Sun. A possible example of a pair are the Trojan asteroids 1583 Antilochus and 3801 Thrasymedes. The proposer of that pair, Andrea Milani (mathematician), Andrea Milani, found five other potential asteroid clusters in the Greek camp, clustered around the asteroids 1437 Diomedes, 1647 Menelaus, 2456 Palamedes, 2797 Teucer and 4035 Thestor. The youngest asteroid pairs discovered include the main-belt asteroids P/2016 J1 (PanSTARRS), P/2016 J1-A/B (separated c. 2010) and / (separated c. 2003). The former pair is particularly remarkable for exhibiting active asteroid, comet-like activity due to water ice sublimation and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Asteroid
An asteroid is a minor planet of the inner Solar System. Sizes and shapes of asteroids vary significantly, ranging from 1-meter rocks to a dwarf planet almost 1000 km in diameter; they are rocky, metallic or icy bodies with no atmosphere. Of the roughly one million known asteroids the greatest number are located between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, approximately 2 to 4 AU from the Sun, in the main asteroid belt. Asteroids are generally classified to be of three types: C-type, M-type, and S-type. These were named after and are generally identified with carbonaceous, metallic, and silicaceous compositions, respectively. The size of asteroids varies greatly; the largest, Ceres, is almost across and qualifies as a dwarf planet. The total mass of all the asteroids combined is only 3% that of Earth's Moon. The majority of main belt asteroids follow slightly elliptical, stable orbits, revolving in the same direction as the Earth and taking from three to six years to comple ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
