S07 → N400
The Spike of Fascinating & Unexpected
SPIKE 25
→ ASTEROID.
© 1. NASA/JPL-Caltech/GSSR/NSF/GBO — Asteroid 2003 SD220 zipping by not too far from Earth / 2. NASA/Goddard/University Of Arizona — Four views of asteroid Bennu and a corresponding global mosaic, the images were taken by the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft’s PolyCam camera (2018) / 3. NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona/Lockheed Martin — Asteroid Bennu ejecting particles from its surface, the image was created by combining two images taken by the NavCam 1 imager aboard NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft: a short exposure image, which shows the asteroid clearly, and a long-exposure image (five seconds), which shows the particles clearly (2019) / 4. NASA — Asteroid Ida and its Dactyl moon. 243 Ida is the second asteroid visited by a spacecraft and the first found to have its own moon. Its close encounter happened on 29 August 1993 as Galileo flew by at a distance of about 1,500 miles (about 2,400 kilometres) en route to Jupiter / 5. NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA — Last sequence of images NASA’s Dawn spacecraft obtained of the giant asteroid Vesta, looking down at Vesta’s north pole as it was departing (2012) / 6. NASA/JPL-Caltech — This series of images shows asteroid 2016 AJ193 rotating as it was observed by Goldstone’s 70-metre (230-foot) antenna (2021) / 7. NASA/JPL-Caltech y NSF/AUI/GBO — Asteroid Apophis recorded by radio antennas at the Goldstone Deep Space Network complex in California and the Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia (2021) / 8. Arecibo Observatory/NASA/NSF — Asteroid 1998 OR2 as imaged by the Arecibo Radar (2020) / 9. Alan Fitzsimmons/Isaac Newton Group — ʻOumuamua is the first interstellar object detected passing through the Solar System. Formally designated 1I/2017 U1, it was discovered by Robert Weryk using the Pan-STARRS telescope at Haleakalā Observatory, Hawaii, on 19 October 2017 - Originally classified as comet C/2017 U1, it was later reclassified as asteroid A/2017 U1 due to the absence of a coma. Once it was unambiguously identified as coming from outside the Solar System, a new designation was created: I, for Interstellar object / 10. NASA/JPL/JHUAPL — Eros is famous as the first asteroid to be orbited by a spacecraft, and the first asteroid to have a spacecraft land on it. But Eros was important to astronomers as far back as 1898 when it became the first near-Earth asteroid (NEA) to be discovered.
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Asteroids are remnants of the early solar system’s formation, representing material that never coalesced into planets. While the majority orbit the Sun harmlessly within the asteroid belt, some may have orbits that bring them closer to Earth. These near-Earth asteroids (NEAs) pose potential hazards, as their orbits intersect with Earth’s orbit and could potentially impact the planet. Some asteroids even have their own moons. One of the most famous examples is the asteroid 243 Ida, which has a tiny moon named Dactyl. Discovered in 1993 by the Galileo spacecraft, Dactyl measures only about 1,4 kilometres in diameter, while Ida itself is about 31,4 kilometres long.
Interestingly, there is a region in the asteroid belt called the “Kirkwood gaps”, which are areas with a noticeably lower density of asteroids. These gaps are caused by the gravitational influence of Jupiter. As asteroids orbit the Sun, those that enter specific orbital resonances with Jupiter experience gravitational interactions that alter their paths, effectively clearing out these regions over time. The Kirkwood gaps are named after the American astronomer Daniel Kirkwood, who first noticed these peculiar gaps in the asteroid belt in the 19th century.
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→ Sourced from: SYSTEM 04 (Poutchka Patrol)
→ Stored online: N400 Spikes Repository
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→ Search log: Google images / NASA Asteroids
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