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    The 7 Strangest Trojan Asteroids
    The 7 Strangest Trojan Asteroids
    The 7 Strangest Trojan Asteroids
    Ebook124 pages1 hour

    The 7 Strangest Trojan Asteroids

    By Stephen S Alison

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    About this ebook

    An asteroid is the name given to rocks or particles that orbit the sun. The definition is very broad, in part because of the fact that asteroids vary in size and composition. They can be tiny dust particles, or they can be hundreds of kilometers in diameter.

    Most asteroids are located in what is known as the asteroid belt. This area between Jupiter and Mars contains many remnants of the gas and particles that resulted from the solar system?s formation over 4.6 billion years ago.

    Trojan asteroids follow a planet?s orbit. Trojans are held in the orbit at the planet?s Lagrangian points by the gravitational pull of two larger bodies. Jupiter has the largest number of Trojans, with the possibility of hundreds or thousands of asteroids located in its orbit.

    Scientists have identified four asteroids in Mars? orbit, and they recently discovered one asteroid that follows Earth?s orbital path. Scientists believe that Trojan asteroids are pulled into the orbit by the planet?s gravitational pull. The asteroids may also be pulled out of the orbit from another planet?s pull, or they could be knocked out by a collision.

    Scientists recently discovered what they believe to be Earth?s first Trojan asteroid. It is currently called 2010 TK7, and they will gather more information before giving it a formal name. Little is known about 2010 TK7.

    This is the story of seven of the solar system's strangest Trojan asteroids:

    APOPHIS: the asteroid that could smash into the Earth sometime in 2029 or 2036.

    BAPTISTINA: the asteroid which was thought to have caused the extinction of Dinosaurs.

    CERES: the biggest asteroid in the Solar System orbiting at an average distance of 413 million km from the Sun.

    HEKTOR: the Biggest Trojan asteroid was discovered in 1907.

    KLEOPATRA: a Metal Dog Bone with moons. Kleopatra has two moons, which were named Alexhelios and Cleoselene earlier this year.

    THEMIS: a large main belt asteroid stands out as the first and only asteroid known thus far to have ice on its surface.

    TOUTATIS: asteroid Toutatis is one of the oddest space rocks and approaches Earth on December 12, 2012.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherStephen S Alison
    Release dateJan 1, 2013
    ISBN9781301756896
    The 7 Strangest Trojan Asteroids

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      Book preview

      The 7 Strangest Trojan Asteroids - Stephen S Alison

      EXCERPT

      An asteroid is the name given to rocks or particles that orbit the sun. The definition is very broad, in part because of the fact that asteroids vary in size and composition. They can be tiny dust particles, or they can be hundreds of kilometers in diameter.

      Image courtesy ESO: The European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope has taken the most detailed image so far of a spectacular part of the stellar nursery called NGC 6357. The view shows many hot young stars, glowing clouds of gas and weird dust formations sculpted by ultraviolet radiation and stellar winds.

      Many people confuse asteroids and meteors. A meteor is a piece of an asteroid that has entered the Earth’s atmosphere. Most meteors are tiny particles of dust or very small rocks that burn up as they enter the atmosphere.

      Others may remain intact and fall to the surface of the Earth, at which point they become categorized as meteorites.

      Most asteroids are located in what is known as the asteroid belt. This area between Jupiter and Mars contains many remnants of the gas and particles that resulted from the solar system’s formation over 4.6 billion years ago.

      This image of the unusual asteroid Lutetia was taken by ESA’s Rosetta probe during its closest approach in July 2010. Credit: ESA 2010 MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/RSSD/INTA/UPM/DASP/

      While many people believe that asteroids are simply rocks floating in the solar system, they are actually very complex and mysterious. While scientists can make guesses and form theories about how asteroids came to be, they are not exactly sure where the particles and rocks came from. Ceres and Vesta are two of the largest proto-planets remaining intact since their formations. They both reside in the extensive zone between Mars and Jupiter together with many other smaller bodies, called the asteroid belt.

      image courtesy of http://www.techmedianetwork.com/

      Ceres, the largest asteroid and the first to be discovered, is named after the Roman goddess of agriculture. It was discovered by Giuseppe Piazzi of the Palermo Observatory on Jan. 1, 1801. Vesta, the brightest asteroid, is named for the ancient Roman goddess of the hearth and is the only asteroid ever visible with the naked eye. Found on March 29, 1807, by Heinrich Olbers, it was the fourth minor planet to be discovered. It is the second most massive and the third largest asteroid

      Dawn is a mission belonging to NASA’s Discovery Program. Its purpose is to explore main belt asteroids in order to yield insights into important questions about the formation and evolution of the solar system and to acquire data from orbit around Dawn's historic mission arrives at Vesta in the early morning hours of Saturday, July 17, 2012.

      After scoping out Vesta, the Dawn spacecraft will journey on to Ceres, arriving in 2015. Once there, the spacecraft will gather data to help scientists learn more about Ceres' composition. The object is probably the wettest asteroid, with large stores of water in its interior as ice, though also possibly as a liquid layer beneath the surface.

      Trojan asteroids follow a planet’s orbit. Trojans are held in the orbit at the planet’s Lagrangian points by the gravitational pull of two larger bodies. Jupiter has the largest number of Trojans, with the possibility of hundreds or thousands of asteroids located in its orbit.

      image: Dawn spacecraft courtesy of NASA

      Scientists have identified four asteroids in Mars’ orbit, and they recently discovered one asteroid that follows Earth’s orbital path. Scientists believe that Trojan asteroids are pulled into the orbit by the planet’s gravitational pull. The asteroids may also be pulled out of the orbit from another planet’s pull, or they could be knocked out by a collision.

      Nasa's Wide Field Infrared Survey Explorer has sampled 107 'potentially hazardous asteroids’ (PHAs) near Earth - 330ft wide or larger - to make estimates about how many are out there - and the figure is a terrifying 47,000.

      The PHAs have the closest orbits to Earth's, coming within five million miles and they are big enough to survive passing through Earth's atmosphere and cause damage on a regional, or global, scale.

      Trojan asteroids follow a planet’s orbit. Trojans are held in the orbit at the planet’s Lagrangian points by the gravitational pull of two larger bodies. Jupiter has the largest number of Trojans, with the possibility of hundreds or thousands of asteroids located in its orbit.

      Scientists have identified four asteroids in Mars’ orbit, and they recently discovered one asteroid that follows Earth’s orbital path. Scientists believe that Trojan asteroids are pulled into the orbit by the planet’s gravitational pull. The asteroids may also be pulled out of the orbit from another planet’s pull, or they could be knocked out by a collision.

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