Transcript Asteroids: little worlds

Asteroids: little worlds
Space between orbits of Mars and Jupiter seems
empty of planets
In 1800, the first of the minor planets,
Ceres, was discovered. After that many
others were discovered and named after
Roman deities (Vesta, Pallas, Calliope,
etc).
Look at Figure 2-2 one more time!
Now we know the space between the
orbits of Mars and Jupiter looks like:
Presently known asteroids
Until the 1990s, there were no images of
asteroids. Missions by robot spacecraft
have changed that
Gaspra
There are now 5 asteroids that have been
visited by spacecraft, with two landers
Most recent result, visit of spacecraft
Hayabusa to asteroid Itokawa
One of the more intriguing
properties of asteroids:
Kirkwood’s Gaps.
Make a histogram of
semimajors axes of orbits, and
what do you get?
Kirkwood’s Gaps are there because
of orbital resonances with Jupiter,
just like the structure in the rings of
Saturn.
“Jupiter is throwing rocks at us”
There is much we didn’t cover
Watch the skies! Watch the skies!