Baptistina (
minor planet designation
A formal minor-planet designation is, in its final form, a number–name combination given to a minor planet (asteroid, centaur, trans-Neptunian object and dwarf planet but not comet). Such designation always features a leading number (catalog or ...
: 298 Baptistina) is an
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.
...
orbiting in the
asteroid belt
The asteroid belt is a torus-shaped region in the Solar System, located roughly between the orbits of the planets Jupiter and Mars. It contains a great many solid, irregularly shaped bodies, of many sizes, but much smaller than planets, called ...
. It is the namesake of the
Baptistina family. It was discovered on 9 September 1890 by
Auguste Charlois
Auguste Honoré Charlois (November 26, 1864 – March 26, 1910) was a French astronomer who discovered 99 asteroids while working at the Nice Observatory in southeastern France.
Asteroid Discovery
His first discovery was the asteroid 267 Tirz ...
of
Nice
Nice ( , ; Niçard: , classical norm, or , nonstandard, ; it, Nizza ; lij, Nissa; grc, Νίκαια; la, Nicaea) is the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative c ...
. The source of its name is unknown. It measures about in diameter. Although it has an orbit similar to the
Flora family
The Flora family (''adj. Florian''; ; also known as ''Ariadne family'') is a prominent family of stony asteroids located in the inner region of the asteroid belt. It is one of the largest families with more than 13,000 known members, or approx ...
asteroids, Baptistina is an unrelated interloper.
[M. Florczak et al. ''A Visible Spectroscopic Survey of the Flora Clan'', Icarus Vol. 133, p. 233 (1998)] It was once considered a possible source of the impactor that caused the extinction of the dinosaurs, a possibility ruled out by the
Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer
Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE, observatory code C51, Explorer 92 and SMEX-6) is a NASA infrared astronomy space telescope in the Explorers Program. It was launched in December 2009, and placed in hibernation mode in February 2011, ...
(WISE) in 2011. ''(See
Baptistina family.)''
References
External links
Lightcurve plot of 298 Baptistina Palmer Divide Observatory,
B. D. Warner (2009)
Asteroid Lightcurve Database (LCDB) query form
)
Dictionary of Minor Planet Names Google books
Observatoire de Genève, Raoul Behrend
Minor Planet Center
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Baptistina asteroids
18900909
Baptistina
Baptistina