Asteroids - Classification and History
- Naming of Asteroids: An asteroid is named as follows:
- First, an asteroid is given a provisional name indicating the year and
month of its discovery. This name consists of the year, followed by a letter
indicating the half month (e.g. A - January (1st half), B - January (2nd half)),
followed by another letter indicating the sequence within the half month. So,
1997 BC would be the third asteroid discovered in the second half of January 1997.
- When an asteroid's orbit is understood well enough that its poistion can
be predicted, it is given a permanent number and name. Numbers are assigned
sequentially. The name is arbitrarilly chosen by the discoverer. So, "243 Ida"
is the 243rd asteroid to be numbered.
Summary of Major Asteroids
Num | Name | Radius (km) | Distance* (10^6km) | Albedo | Discoverer | Date
|
---|
1 | Ceres | 457 | 413.9 | 0.10 | G. Piazzi | 1801
|
511 | Davida | 168 | 475.4 | 0.05 | R. Dugan | 1903
|
15 | Eunomia | 136 | 395.5 | 0.19 | De Gasparis | 1851
|
52 | Europa | 156 | 463.3 | 0.06 | Goldschmidt | 1858
|
10 | Hygiea | 215 | 470.3 | 0.08 | De Gasparis | 1849
|
704 | Interamnia | 167 | 458.1 | 0.06 | V. Cerulli | 1910
|
2 | Pallas | 261 | 414.5 | 0.14 | H. Olbers | 1802
|
16 | Psyche | 132 | 437.1 | 0.10 | De Gasparis | 1852
|
87 | Sylvia | 136 | 521.5 | 0.04 | N. Pogson | 1866
|
4 | Vesta | 262.5 | 353.4 | 0.38 | H. Olbers | 1807
|
951 | Gaspra | 17x10 | 205.0 | 0.20 | Neujmin | 1916
|
243 | Ida | 58x23 | 270.0 | ? | J. Palisa | 29 Sep 1884
|
* Mean distance from the Sun.
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