Refiner of Gold Creations'

Solar System -- Asteroids

Between Mars and Jupiter
and Beyond
Asteroids
  • Most asteroids orbit the sun in a belt between Mars and Jupiter.
  • Believed by many scientists to be the remnants of a failed planet.
  • Some asteroids are pulled free of their normal orbit by Mars' gravitational pull, thus sending them on an elliptical orbit which brings them close or within Earth's own orbit.
  • Asteroids formed by aggregation of dust same as the planets aggregated, and at the same time.
  • Ceres, the largest asteroid, began amalgamating all the other asteroids on its way toward becoming a small planet.
  • Jupiter, however, prevented Ceres from completing its mission.
    • Jupiter's mass and graivty disturbed the motions of the asteroids.
    • As a result, collisions shattered much of the asteroids.
    • Ceres remained at 914 km (568 miles) across.
    • Dozens of asteroids ranging from 100-522 km (62-324 miles) also remained.
    • And finally, tens of thousands of smaller fragments, most too small to catalog, complete the belt.
  • Other groups of Asteroids orbit in other parts of the Solar System.
    • Positions of orbits vary from near Earth to near Jupiter.
  • Ceres provides us with a time-capsule of events in the solar system.
    • Some 4.5 billion years ago, planetsimiles were scattered throughout space.
    • Unlike science-fiction, asteroids are not as closely clustered in space.
    • These bodies are far enough away that space, if viewed from Ceres, would be similar to that from Earth.
    • Neighboring asteroids would appear occasionally as a bright "star" drifting across the night sky.
    • A substantially closer look at an asteroid neighbor is likely about once in a million years.
  • Four well-known asteroids are:
    • 1 Ceres
      • Discovered in 1801 - the first asteroid to be discovered.
      • Length of one Revolution about the sun is about 4.6 Earth years.
      • Distance from the sun is 2.77 AU.
      • Broadest distance/diameter is 914 km or 568 miles.
      • Gravity is 0.04 (where Earth's is 1.0).
      • Composed of carbonaceous rock .
      • No atmosphere.
    • Pallas
      • Discovered in 1802.
      • Length of one Revolution about the sun is about 3.63 Earth years.
      • Distance from the sun is 2.77 AU.
      • Broadest distance/diameter is 522.
      • Gravity is 0.02
      • Composed of meteoric rock .
      • No atmosphere.
    • Juno
      • Discovered in 1804.
      • Length of one Revolution about the sun is about 4.61 Earth years.
      • Distance from the sun is 2.67 AU.
      • Broadest distance/diameter is 244
      • Gravity is 0.01
      • Composed of rock and iron.
      • No atmosphere.
    • 4 Vesta
      • Discovered in 1807.
      • Length of one Revolution about the sun is about 5.59 Earth years.
      • Distance from the sun is 2.36 AU.
      • Broadest distance/diameter is 500 km or 311 miles.
      • Gravity is 0.02
      • Composed of basaltic, meteoritic rock.
      • No atmosphere.
  • Other asteroids of interest:
For more information on Asteroids, visit:

~ | ~ Flyby Ceres ~ | ~ Flyby Vesta ~ | ~ Flyby Gaspra ~ | ~
~ | ~ Flyby Hektor ~ | ~ Flyby 1221 Amor ~ | ~ Flyby 1862 Apollo ~ | ~
~ | ~ Flyby Castalia & Toutatis ~ | ~ Flyby 1991 BA ~ | ~
~ | ~ Forward to Jupiter ~ | ~ Back to Mars ~ | ~
~ | ~ Return to Solar System ~ | ~ Lexicon of Astronomy ~ | ~ Planetary Statistics ~ | ~
Refiner of Gold Creations
1998 Solar System Facts
Created by EMC on 6/23/1997. Updated 5/4/2005.