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Asteroids
Murphy McGraw
What they are
• Rocky and metallic objects that orbit the Sun but are too small to be considered planets
• No atmospheres • Diverse group of small
celestial bodies in the solar system
• Known as "minor planets" • Made of rock and metal
History
• 65 million years ago• 1801 – Ceres• June 30, 1908• Theories on
chemicals
Why study them?
• Where are they? Could they strike earth (again?) • Mineral Resources• Formation of the Solar System and our own
Earth.
How to study them
• Telescopes• Spectroscopes• Rockets• Spacecrafts• Six space missions• Laboratory analysis of
meteorites
Types
• C-type• S-type • M-type• Rare types
How they are classified
• Classified by Aledo• Composition derived
from spectral features in their reflected sunlight
• Inferred similarities to known meteorite types
Where they are located
• Asteroid Belt Between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter
• Near-Earth Asteroids (NEAs) – Amors – Apollos– Atens
• Trojans
Sizes and Shapes
• All different shapes and sizes
• Nearly spherical (Ceres)
• Very irregular (Eros, most others)
• Size ranging- very small (rocks) very large (minor planets)
Bibliography / Questions?
• http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/text/asteroids.txt
• http://www.nineplanets.org/asteroids.html
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asteroid
• http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/DawnCommunity/flashbacks/fb_12.pdf
• http://www.noao.edu/education/asteroids/