Essay Preview: KornReport this essayOn the first day of January 1801, Giuseppe Piazzi discovered an object which he first thought was a new comet. But after its orbit was better determined it was clear that it was not a comet but more like a small planet. Piazzi named it Ceres, after the Sicilian goddess of grain. Three other small bodies were discovered in the next few years (Pallas, Vesta, and Juno). By the end of the 19th century there were several hundred.
Several hundred thousand asteroids have been discovered and given provisional designations so far. Thousands more are discovered each year. There are undoubtedly hundreds of thousands more that are too small to be seen from the Earth. There are 26 known asteroids larger than 200 km in diameter. Our census of the largest ones is now fairly complete: we probably know 99% of the asteroids larger than 100 km in diameter. Of those in the 10 to 100 km range we have cataloged about half. But we know very few of the smaller ones; there are probably considerably more than a million asteroids in the 1 km range.
The total mass of all the asteroids is less than that of the Moon.11 comets and asteroids have been explored by spacecraft so far, as follows: ICE flyby of Comet Giacobini-Zinner. Multiple flyby missions to Comet Halley. Giotto (retarget) to Comet Grigg-Skellerup. Galileo flybys of asteroids Gaspra and Ida (and Ida satellite Dactyl). NEAR-Shoemaker flyby of asteroid Mathilde on the way to orbit and land on Eros. DS-1 flybys of asteroid Braille and Comet Borrelly. Stardust flyby of asteroid Annefrank and recent sample collection from Comet Wild 2. For future we can expect: Hayabusa (MUSES-C) to asteroid Itokawa, Rosetta to Comet Churyumov-Gerasmenko, Deep Impact to Comet Tempel 1, and Dawn to orbit asteroids Vesta and Ceres.
The ESA/Goddard’s Surveyor (GOSS) has also issued three major asteroid observations today. At 12.22am CDT, the Surveyor will pass through the red dwarf planet Ceres, a dwarf planet roughly 10,000 light years away. It is the seventh asteroid we have visited in the history of the Solar System, and the last in the Solar System to land in the habitable zone of one of the most remote regions on the planet. This is the largest asteroid discovered. Ceres will be moving at more than three miles per second (about 50 km per second), in an orbit consistent with a small body of water on Mars and other stars. There is nothing like this to have seen before. This is due to its position, but this is far from its target on the surface. The GOSS will observe the asteroid by its orbit, with a range of 200 kilometres (80 miles), for about 50 days, a time that will be quite unusual given the precise age and location of the asteroid and a clear view of its surroundings. It will be in a position that will allow for its formation at some point in the future.
More information about the GOSS mission can be found on the ESA’s website at www.esa.int. As ESA Astronomers (ESA) can access the asteroid, they also can obtain information about the activity of the spacecraft along the CTA (continuing of the asteroid course), in the GOSS program and in its asteroid processing. In ESA’s AstroSciences Database (ASD) database (where data are available, for example, the ESA/GOSS project code for Jupiter, the Sun and other visible and ultraviolet objects), ESA refers to the GOSS mission as “HOT SPACE”. The GOSS mission is now in operation.
News and updates
The following news related to Ceres are included here:
The GOSS mission has been approved by the European Space Agency. ESA will begin an extensive investigation of Ceres in March 2010, and, if necessary, ESA will send up a spacecraft to carry out an analysis and reanalysis of the comet’s chemistry at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The team will perform a similar investigation of any potential impacts to the planet if an asteroid is detected in the vicinity.
Brief historical information on the asteroid is available here.
What was the name of Ceres?
The name “Ceres” is based on the name of the asteroid called “Basten”. From the name “Ceres” we have come to understand that the asteroid is a liquid world or an atmosphere filled with water that
The ESA/Goddard’s Surveyor (GOSS) has also issued three major asteroid observations today. At 12.22am CDT, the Surveyor will pass through the red dwarf planet Ceres, a dwarf planet roughly 10,000 light years away. It is the seventh asteroid we have visited in the history of the Solar System, and the last in the Solar System to land in the habitable zone of one of the most remote regions on the planet. This is the largest asteroid discovered. Ceres will be moving at more than three miles per second (about 50 km per second), in an orbit consistent with a small body of water on Mars and other stars. There is nothing like this to have seen before. This is due to its position, but this is far from its target on the surface. The GOSS will observe the asteroid by its orbit, with a range of 200 kilometres (80 miles), for about 50 days, a time that will be quite unusual given the precise age and location of the asteroid and a clear view of its surroundings. It will be in a position that will allow for its formation at some point in the future.
More information about the GOSS mission can be found on the ESA’s website at www.esa.int. As ESA Astronomers (ESA) can access the asteroid, they also can obtain information about the activity of the spacecraft along the CTA (continuing of the asteroid course), in the GOSS program and in its asteroid processing. In ESA’s AstroSciences Database (ASD) database (where data are available, for example, the ESA/GOSS project code for Jupiter, the Sun and other visible and ultraviolet objects), ESA refers to the GOSS mission as “HOT SPACE”. The GOSS mission is now in operation.
News and updates
The following news related to Ceres are included here:
The GOSS mission has been approved by the European Space Agency. ESA will begin an extensive investigation of Ceres in March 2010, and, if necessary, ESA will send up a spacecraft to carry out an analysis and reanalysis of the comet’s chemistry at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The team will perform a similar investigation of any potential impacts to the planet if an asteroid is detected in the vicinity.
Brief historical information on the asteroid is available here.
What was the name of Ceres?
The name “Ceres” is based on the name of the asteroid called “Basten”. From the name “Ceres” we have come to understand that the asteroid is a liquid world or an atmosphere filled with water that
The ESA/Goddard’s Surveyor (GOSS) has also issued three major asteroid observations today. At 12.22am CDT, the Surveyor will pass through the red dwarf planet Ceres, a dwarf planet roughly 10,000 light years away. It is the seventh asteroid we have visited in the history of the Solar System, and the last in the Solar System to land in the habitable zone of one of the most remote regions on the planet. This is the largest asteroid discovered. Ceres will be moving at more than three miles per second (about 50 km per second), in an orbit consistent with a small body of water on Mars and other stars. There is nothing like this to have seen before. This is due to its position, but this is far from its target on the surface. The GOSS will observe the asteroid by its orbit, with a range of 200 kilometres (80 miles), for about 50 days, a time that will be quite unusual given the precise age and location of the asteroid and a clear view of its surroundings. It will be in a position that will allow for its formation at some point in the future.
More information about the GOSS mission can be found on the ESA’s website at www.esa.int. As ESA Astronomers (ESA) can access the asteroid, they also can obtain information about the activity of the spacecraft along the CTA (continuing of the asteroid course), in the GOSS program and in its asteroid processing. In ESA’s AstroSciences Database (ASD) database (where data are available, for example, the ESA/GOSS project code for Jupiter, the Sun and other visible and ultraviolet objects), ESA refers to the GOSS mission as “HOT SPACE”. The GOSS mission is now in operation.
News and updates
The following news related to Ceres are included here:
The GOSS mission has been approved by the European Space Agency. ESA will begin an extensive investigation of Ceres in March 2010, and, if necessary, ESA will send up a spacecraft to carry out an analysis and reanalysis of the comet’s chemistry at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The team will perform a similar investigation of any potential impacts to the planet if an asteroid is detected in the vicinity.
Brief historical information on the asteroid is available here.
What was the name of Ceres?
The name “Ceres” is based on the name of the asteroid called “Basten”. From the name “Ceres” we have come to understand that the asteroid is a liquid world or an atmosphere filled with water that