Planet to asteroid belt

[trek9]

Something has been eating away at me, mainly because I can not find any information on the subject. but pehaps I seek it in the wrong place.<br />My questions are multiple about the Ateroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.<br />Was it once a planet that blew up?<br />If yes, then how would such a planet have affected the other planets in the system due to rotations and so forth.<br />And if it did blow up, did remnants of it cause the destruction of Mars? or even send the great asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs?<br />

 

[billslugg]

Welcome to SDC! We are happy to entertain your question. Allow me to open the volley!<br />I have read that the asteroids are the remnants of a planet that failed to form, not the remnants of one that blew up. The gravitational influence of Jupiter is responsible for this failure. The asteroids would coalesce to form an object only as large as the Moon. The remaining "missing" mass was ejected from the belt by Jupiter. All of this occurred long before the unpleasantness at Chicxulub. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p> </p> </div>

 

[nexium]

Welcome to our forum. All that billslugg typed is mainstream opinion. Because of the low mass, only Mars would be perturbed significantly, when and if this planet passed within a million miles of Mars. Asteroid hits (the past 4 billion years) likely made only a minor contribution to the environment of present Mars. Neil

 

[MeteorWayne]

Welcome!! <br />Yes what billslugg wrote was mainstream opinion, supported by a vast amount of science. The total mass being the size of the moon if added together is certainly a fact.<br />Of course, like everything else, as we visit more asteroids, we will continue to learn more. A mission called Dawn is to be launched next month that will visit two of the largest, 4 Vesta, and 1 Ceres (the first asteroid ever discovered.) There's a thread on Dawn in the Missions and Launches forum.<br /><br />There's also a thread (I think it's here in SS&A, but will find it for you) that has images of the asteroids we have visited.<br /><br />Meteor Wayne <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080"><em><font color="#000000">But the Krell forgot one thing John. Monsters. Monsters from the Id.</font></em> </font></p><p><font color="#000080">I really, really, really, really miss the "first unread post" function</font><font color="#000080"> </font></p> </div>

 

[jaxtraw]

Ceres is no longer an asteroid remember, it's a Dwarf Planet <img src="/images/icons/laugh.gif" /><br /><br />My own amateurish prediction is that we're going to find that Ceres is a fundamentally different type of fish to the asteroids (including Vesta, which is IMHO just a big asteroid). I think we're in for some real shocks when Dawn finally gets there.

 

[MeteorWayne]

Regarding Ceres, good point jaxtraw.<br />Old habits die hard! <img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080"><em><font color="#000000">But the Krell forgot one thing John. Monsters. Monsters from the Id.</font></em> </font></p><p><font color="#000080">I really, really, really, really miss the "first unread post" function</font><font color="#000080"> </font></p> </div>

 

[jaxtraw]

Easy mistake to make. <img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" /><br /><br />Question is, should we revoke its asteroid number also?

 

[3488]

Hi trek9<br /><br />Welcome to SDC.<br /><br />Great first question.<br /><br />Yes it is true. Billslugg is correct. The asteroid belt is the material that failed to form into a planet. <br /><br />The current mass of the Asteroid Belt appears to be only a fraction of what was there initially.<br /><br />Asteroid impacted each other releasing dust, which in turn was blown away<br />with the solar wind.<br /><br />Hi MeteorWayne, I do not mind posting these images for trek9. I never get<br />bored with this sort of thing.<br /><br />Below: Asteroid 931 Gaspra.<br /><br />Arrox dimensions: 19 x 12 x 11 kilometers (12 x 7.5 x 7 miles). <br /><br />The portion illuminated in this view is about 18 kilometers (11 miles) from lower left to <br />upper right. <br /><br />The north pole is located at upper left.<br /><br />Gaspra rotates counterclockwise every 7 hours. <br /><br />The large concavity on the lower right limb is about 6 kilometers (3.7 miles) across, the <br />prominent crater on the terminator, center left, about 1.5 kilometers (1 mile). <br /><br />A striking feature of Gaspra's surface is the abundance of small craters. <br /><br />More than 600 craters, 100-500 meters (330-1650 feet) in diameter are visible here.<br /><br />The number of such small craters compared to larger ones is much greater for 951 Gaspra <br />than for previously studied bodies of comparable size such as the satellites of Mars (Phobos & Deimos). <br /><br />951 Gaspra's very irregular shape suggests that the asteroid was derived from a larger <br />body by nearly catastrophic collisions. <br /><br />Consistent with such a history is the prominence of groove-like linear features, <br /><br />believed to be related to fractures. These linear depressions, 100-300 meters wide <br />and tens of meters deep, are in two crossing groups with slightly different morphology, <br />one group wider and more pitted than the other. Grooves had previously been <br />seen only on Mars's moon Phobos, but were predicted for asteroids as well <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080">"I suddenly noticed an anomaly to the left of Io, just off the rim of that world. It was extremely large with respect to the overall size of Io and crescent shaped. It seemed unbelievable that something that big had not been visible before".</font> <em><strong><font color="#000000">Linda Morabito </font></strong><font color="#800000">on discovering that the Jupiter moon Io was volcanically active. Friday 9th March 1979.</font></em></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://www.launchphotography.com/</font><br /><br /><font size="1" color="#000080">http://anthmartian.googlepages.com/thisislandearth</font></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://web.me.com/meridianijournal</font></p> </div>

 

[3488]

Post deleted by 3488 <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080">"I suddenly noticed an anomaly to the left of Io, just off the rim of that world. It was extremely large with respect to the overall size of Io and crescent shaped. It seemed unbelievable that something that big had not been visible before".</font> <em><strong><font color="#000000">Linda Morabito </font></strong><font color="#800000">on discovering that the Jupiter moon Io was volcanically active. Friday 9th March 1979.</font></em></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://www.launchphotography.com/</font><br /><br /><font size="1" color="#000080">http://anthmartian.googlepages.com/thisislandearth</font></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://web.me.com/meridianijournal</font></p> </div>

 

[3488]

This montage of 11 images taken by the Galileo spacecraft as it flew by the <br />asteroid 951 Gaspra on October 29, 1991, shows 951 Gaspra growing progressively <br />larger in the field of view of Galileo's solid-state imaging camera as the spacecraft <br />approached the asteroid. Sunlight is coming from the right. <br />951 Gaspra is roughly 19 kilometers (11 miles) long, 11 kilometers (7 miles) wide. <br />The earliest view (upper left) was taken 5 3/4 hours before closest approach <br />when the spacecraft was 164,000 kilometers (102,000 miles) from 951 Gaspra, <br />the last (lower right) at a range of 16,000 kilometers (10,000 miles), 30 minutes <br />before closest approach. <br /><br />951 Gaspra spins once in roughly 7 hours & 9 minutes, so these images capture almost <br />one full rotation of the asteroid. <br />951 Gaspra spins counterclockwise; its north pole is to the upper left, and the "nose" <br />which points upward in the first image, is seen rotating back into shadow, emerging <br />at lower left, and rotating to upper right. Several craters are visible on the newly seen <br />sides of Gaspra, but none approaches the scale of the asteroid's radius. Evidently, <br />951 Gaspra lacks the large craters common on the surfaces of many planetary satellites, <br />consistent with 951 Gaspra's comparatively <br />recent origin from the collisional <br />breakup of a larger body. <br /><br />The Galileo project, whose primary mission is the exploration of the Jupiter <br />system in 1995-97, is managed for NASA's Office of Space Science and <br />Applications by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. <br /><br />NASA / JPL. <br /><br />Andrew Brown. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080">"I suddenly noticed an anomaly to the left of Io, just off the rim of that world. It was extremely large with respect to the overall size of Io and crescent shaped. It seemed unbelievable that something that big had not been visible before".</font> <em><strong><font color="#000000">Linda Morabito </font></strong><font color="#800000">on discovering that the Jupiter moon Io was volcanically active. Friday 9th March 1979.</font></em></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://www.launchphotography.com/</font><br /><br /><font size="1" color="#000080">http://anthmartian.googlepages.com/thisislandearth</font></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://web.me.com/meridianijournal</font></p> </div>

 

[3488]

This view of the asteroid 243 Ida is a mosaic of five image frames acquired by the <br />Galileo spacecraft's solid-state imaging system at ranges of 3,057 to 3,821 kilometers <br />(1,900 to 2,375 miles) on August 28, 1993, <br />about 3-1/2 minutes before <br />the spacecraft made its closest approach to the asteroid. <br />Galileo flew about 2,400 kilometers (1,500 miles) from 243 Ida at a relative velocity of <br />12.4 km/sec (28,000 mph). <br />Asteroid and spacecraft were 441 million kilometers (274 million miles) from the Sun. <br />243 Ida is the second asteroid ever encountered by a spacecraft. <br />It appears to be about 52 kilometers (32 miles) in length, more than twice as <br />large as 951 Gaspra, the first asteroid observed by Galileo in October 1991. <br />243 Ida is an irregularly shaped asteroid placed by scientists in the S class <br />(believed to be like stony or stony iron meteorites). It is a member of the Koronis <br />family, presumed fragments left from the breakup of a precursor asteroid in a <br />catastrophic collision. This view shows numerous craters, including many<br />degraded craters larger than any seen on 951 Gaspra. The extensive cratering <br />seems to dispel theories about 243 Ida's surface being geologically youthful. <br />This view also seems to rule out the idea that Ida is a double body. <br />The south pole is believed to be in the darkside near the middle of the asteroid. <br />The camera's clear filter was used to produce this extremely sharp picture. <br />Spatial resolution is 31 to 38 meters (roughly 100 feet) per pixel. <br />A 30-frame mosaic was taken to assure capturing 243 Ida; its position was somewhat <br />uncertain before the Galileo encounter. Galileo shuttered and recorded <br />a total of 150 images in order to capture Ida 21 different times during a <br />five hour period (about one rotation of the asteroid). Color filters were used at <br />many of these times to allow reconstruction of color images. <br />Playback to Earth <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080">"I suddenly noticed an anomaly to the left of Io, just off the rim of that world. It was extremely large with respect to the overall size of Io and crescent shaped. It seemed unbelievable that something that big had not been visible before".</font> <em><strong><font color="#000000">Linda Morabito </font></strong><font color="#800000">on discovering that the Jupiter moon Io was volcanically active. Friday 9th March 1979.</font></em></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://www.launchphotography.com/</font><br /><br /><font size="1" color="#000080">http://anthmartian.googlepages.com/thisislandearth</font></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://web.me.com/meridianijournal</font></p> </div>

 

[3488]

Close up of Asteroid 243 Ida.<br /><br />Note the large boulders in the crater at right.<br /><br />This view is approx 24 KM / 15 miles across.<br /><br />Galileo Spacecraft.<br /><br />NASA / JPL.<br /><br />Andrew Brown. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080">"I suddenly noticed an anomaly to the left of Io, just off the rim of that world. It was extremely large with respect to the overall size of Io and crescent shaped. It seemed unbelievable that something that big had not been visible before".</font> <em><strong><font color="#000000">Linda Morabito </font></strong><font color="#800000">on discovering that the Jupiter moon Io was volcanically active. Friday 9th March 1979.</font></em></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://www.launchphotography.com/</font><br /><br /><font size="1" color="#000080">http://anthmartian.googlepages.com/thisislandearth</font></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://web.me.com/meridianijournal</font></p> </div>

 

[3488]

This is both asteroid 243 Ida and moon Dactyl, the first conclusive evidence that natural satellites of<br />asteroids exist. <br /><br />243 Ida, the large object, is about 56 kilometers (35 miles) long. <br />243 Ida's natural satellite Dactyl is the small object to the right. <br />This portrait was taken by Galileo's charge-coupled device (CCD) camera on <br />August 28, 1993, about 14 minutes before the Jupiter-bound spacecraft's closest <br />approach to the asteroid, from a range of 10,870 kilometers (6,755 miles). <br /><br />243 Ida is a heavily cratered, irregularly shaped asteroid in the main asteroid <br />belt between Mars and Jupiter--the 243rd asteroid to be discovered since the first <br />was found at the beginning of the 19th century. <br />243 Ida is a member of a group of asteroids called the Koronis family. <br />The small satellite, Dactyl which is about 1.5 kilometers (1 mile) across in this view, <br /><br />Although appearing to be 'next' to Ida, Dactyl is actually in the foreground, <br />slightly closer to the Galileo Spacecraft than 243 Ida is. <br /><br />Dactyl is about 100 kilometers (61 miles) away from the center of 243 Ida. <br />The spatial resolution in this image is about 100 meters (330 feet) per pixel. <br /><br />NASA / JPL.<br /><br />Andrew Brown. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080">"I suddenly noticed an anomaly to the left of Io, just off the rim of that world. It was extremely large with respect to the overall size of Io and crescent shaped. It seemed unbelievable that something that big had not been visible before".</font> <em><strong><font color="#000000">Linda Morabito </font></strong><font color="#800000">on discovering that the Jupiter moon Io was volcanically active. Friday 9th March 1979.</font></em></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://www.launchphotography.com/</font><br /><br /><font size="1" color="#000080">http://anthmartian.googlepages.com/thisislandearth</font></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://web.me.com/meridianijournal</font></p> </div>

 

[3488]

This montage of 14 images (the time order is right to left, bottom to top) shows <br />Ida as it appeared in the field of view of Galileo's camera on August 28, 1993. <br />Asteroid 243 Ida rotates once every 4 hours, 39 minutes and clockwise (retrograde) <br />when viewed from above the north pole; <br />these images cover about one 243 Ida 'day.' This sequence has been used to <br />create a 3-D model that shows 243 Ida to be almost croissant shaped. <br />The earliest view (lower right) was taken from a range of 240,000 kilometers (150,000 miles), <br />5.4 hours before closest approach. <br />The asteroid 243 Ida draws its name from mythology, in which the Greek god Zeus <br />was raised by the nymph Ida. <br /><br />NASA / JPL.<br /><br />Andrew Brown. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080">"I suddenly noticed an anomaly to the left of Io, just off the rim of that world. It was extremely large with respect to the overall size of Io and crescent shaped. It seemed unbelievable that something that big had not been visible before".</font> <em><strong><font color="#000000">Linda Morabito </font></strong><font color="#800000">on discovering that the Jupiter moon Io was volcanically active. Friday 9th March 1979.</font></em></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://www.launchphotography.com/</font><br /><br /><font size="1" color="#000080">http://anthmartian.googlepages.com/thisislandearth</font></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://web.me.com/meridianijournal</font></p> </div>

 

[3488]

This image is the most detailed picture of the natural satellite of <br />asteroid 243 Ida, Dactyl taken by the Galileo Solid-State Imaging camera during <br />its encounter with the asteroid on August 28, 1993. <br /><br />Shuttered through the camera's broadband clear filter as part of a 30-frame mosaic <br />designed to image the asteroid itself, this frame fortuitously captured the previously <br />unknown moon at a range of about 3,900 kilometers (2,400 miles), <br />just over 4 minutes before the spacecraft's closest approach to 243 Ida. <br />Each picture element spans about 39 meters (125 feet) on the surface of Dactyl. <br />More than a dozen craters larger than 80 meters (250 feet) in diameter are clearly <br />evident, indicating that the moon has suffered numerous collisions from smaller <br />Solar System debris during its history. <br />The larger crater on the terminator is about 300 meters (1,000 feet) across. <br />The satellite is approximately egg-shaped, measuring about <br />1.2 x 1.4 x 1.6 kilometers (0.75 x 0.87 x 1 mile). At the time this image was <br />shuttered, 243 Ida was about 90 kilometers (56 miles) away from Dactyl, outside <br />this frame to the left and slightly below center. <br /><br />The Galileo project, whose primary mission is the exploration of the <br />Jupiter system in 1995-97, is managed for NASA's Office of Space Science <br />by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. <br /><br />NASA / JPL.<br /><br />Andrew Brown. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080">"I suddenly noticed an anomaly to the left of Io, just off the rim of that world. It was extremely large with respect to the overall size of Io and crescent shaped. It seemed unbelievable that something that big had not been visible before".</font> <em><strong><font color="#000000">Linda Morabito </font></strong><font color="#800000">on discovering that the Jupiter moon Io was volcanically active. Friday 9th March 1979.</font></em></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://www.launchphotography.com/</font><br /><br /><font size="1" color="#000080">http://anthmartian.googlepages.com/thisislandearth</font></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://web.me.com/meridianijournal</font></p> </div>

 

[3488]

Post deleted by 3488 <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080">"I suddenly noticed an anomaly to the left of Io, just off the rim of that world. It was extremely large with respect to the overall size of Io and crescent shaped. It seemed unbelievable that something that big had not been visible before".</font> <em><strong><font color="#000000">Linda Morabito </font></strong><font color="#800000">on discovering that the Jupiter moon Io was volcanically active. Friday 9th March 1979.</font></em></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://www.launchphotography.com/</font><br /><br /><font size="1" color="#000080">http://anthmartian.googlepages.com/thisislandearth</font></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://web.me.com/meridianijournal</font></p> </div>

 

[3488]

This image mosaic of asteroid 253 Mathilde is constructed from <br />four images acquired by the NEAR spacecraft on June 27, 1997. <br />This was taken from a distance of 2,400 km (1,500 miles). <br />Sunlight is coming from the upper right. The part of the asteroid shown is about <br />59 by 47 km (36 by 29 miles) across. <br />Details as small as 380 meters (1,250 feet) can be discerned. <br />The surface exhibits many large craters, including the deeply shadowed one at the <br />center, which is estimated to be more than <br />10 kilometers (6 miles) deep. <br />The shadowed, wedge-shaped feature at the lower right is another large crater <br />viewed obliquely. <br /><br />The angular shape of the upper left limb of the asteroid results from the rim of a <br />third large crater viewed edge-on. The bright mountainous feature at the <br />far left may be the rim of a fourth large crater emerging from the shadow. <br />The angular shape is believed to result from a violent history of impacts. <br /><br />Built and managed by The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, <br />Laurel, Maryland, NEAR was the first spacecraft launched in NASA's Discovery <br />Program of low-cost, small-scale planetary missions. See the <br />NEAR web page at http://near.jhuapl.edu for more details. <br /><br />NASA / JHU. <br /><br />Andrew Brown. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080">"I suddenly noticed an anomaly to the left of Io, just off the rim of that world. It was extremely large with respect to the overall size of Io and crescent shaped. It seemed unbelievable that something that big had not been visible before".</font> <em><strong><font color="#000000">Linda Morabito </font></strong><font color="#800000">on discovering that the Jupiter moon Io was volcanically active. Friday 9th March 1979.</font></em></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://www.launchphotography.com/</font><br /><br /><font size="1" color="#000080">http://anthmartian.googlepages.com/thisislandearth</font></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://web.me.com/meridianijournal</font></p> </div>

 

[3488]

This view of 253 Mathilde, taken from a distance of about 1,200 km (748 miles), <br />was acquired shortly after the NEAR spacecraft's closest approach to the asteroid. <br />In this image, the asteroid has been rotated so that the illumination appears to <br />come from the upper left. This portion of Mathilde shows numerous impact craters, <br />ranging from over 30 km to less than 0.5 km (18.. 0.3 miles) in diameter. <br />Raised crater rims suggest that some of the material ejected from these <br />craters traveled only short distances before falling back to the surface; <br />straight sections of some crater rims indicate the influence of large faults or <br />fractures on crater formation. The number of craters as a function of size, and the <br />number of each size within the visible area, are similar to values seen on <br />asteroid 243 Ida, viewed by the Galileo spacecraft in 1993. <br />A major difference between 243 Ida and 253 Mathilde appears to be the abundance <br />of very large craters: 253 Mathilde has at least 5 craters larger than 20 km in <br />diameter on the roughly 60% of the body viewed during the encounter.<br /><br />Built and managed by The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, <br />Laurel, Maryland, NEAR was the first spacecraft launched in <br />NASA's Discovery Program of low-cost, small-scale planetary missions. <br />See the NEAR web page at http://near.jhuapl.edu for more details. <br /><br />NASA / JHU.<br /><br />Andrew Brown. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080">"I suddenly noticed an anomaly to the left of Io, just off the rim of that world. It was extremely large with respect to the overall size of Io and crescent shaped. It seemed unbelievable that something that big had not been visible before".</font> <em><strong><font color="#000000">Linda Morabito </font></strong><font color="#800000">on discovering that the Jupiter moon Io was volcanically active. Friday 9th March 1979.</font></em></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://www.launchphotography.com/</font><br /><br /><font size="1" color="#000080">http://anthmartian.googlepages.com/thisislandearth</font></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://web.me.com/meridianijournal</font></p> </div>

 

[3488]

Two different views of asteroid 253 Mathilde were obtained by the <br />NEAR spacecraft on June 27, 1997. The image at left was obtained as the spacecraft <br />approached 253 Mathilde with its camera pointed near the direction of the <br />Sun; only a few of the prominent ridges on 253 Mathilde are illuminated. <br />The visible area at left is 29 km (18 miles) high, and the phase angle (the angle from <br />Sun-253 Mathilde spacecraft) is 136°. <br />As the spacecraft receded from 253 Mathilde, it observed the asteroid <br />(about 60 km or 38 miles across) almost fully lit by the Sun at a phase angle of 43° (right image). <br /><br />253 Mathilde's irregular shape results from a long history of severe collisions with <br />smaller asteroids. The largest visible crater is 30 km (19 miles) in diameter.<br /><br />Built and managed by The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, <br />Laurel, Maryland, NEAR was the first spacecraft launched in <br />NASA's Discovery Program of low-cost, small-scale planetary missions. <br />See the NEAR web page at http://near.jhuapl.edu for more details. <br /><br />NASA / JHU.<br /><br />Andrew Brown.<br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080">"I suddenly noticed an anomaly to the left of Io, just off the rim of that world. It was extremely large with respect to the overall size of Io and crescent shaped. It seemed unbelievable that something that big had not been visible before".</font> <em><strong><font color="#000000">Linda Morabito </font></strong><font color="#800000">on discovering that the Jupiter moon Io was volcanically active. Friday 9th March 1979.</font></em></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://www.launchphotography.com/</font><br /><br /><font size="1" color="#000080">http://anthmartian.googlepages.com/thisislandearth</font></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://web.me.com/meridianijournal</font></p> </div>

 

[3488]

Giant Boulders on Asteroid 253 Mathilde.<br /><br />263 Mathilde is the third slowest known rotating asteroid, taking approx <br />17 Days & 8 Hours to rotate once.<br /><br />Only asteroids 288 Glauke & 1220 Crocus are slower known spinners.<br /><br />Built and managed by The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, <br />Laurel, Maryland, NEAR was the first spacecraft launched in <br />NASA's Discovery Program of low-cost, small-scale planetary missions. <br />See the NEAR web page at http://near.jhuapl.edu for more details. <br /><br />NASA / JHU. <br /><br />Andrew Brown. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080">"I suddenly noticed an anomaly to the left of Io, just off the rim of that world. It was extremely large with respect to the overall size of Io and crescent shaped. It seemed unbelievable that something that big had not been visible before".</font> <em><strong><font color="#000000">Linda Morabito </font></strong><font color="#800000">on discovering that the Jupiter moon Io was volcanically active. Friday 9th March 1979.</font></em></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://www.launchphotography.com/</font><br /><br /><font size="1" color="#000080">http://anthmartian.googlepages.com/thisislandearth</font></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://web.me.com/meridianijournal</font></p> </div>

 

[3488]

trek9,<br /><br />433 Eros is not a member of the main asteroid belt, it is a Near Earth Asteroid, an Amor<br />type, one that closses the orbit of Mars, but not Earth.<br /><br />433 Eros was almost certainly a main belt asteroid in the past.<br /><br />------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /><br />This incredible picture of Eros, taken on February 14, 2000, shows the view <br />looking from one end of the asteroid across the gouge on its underside and <br />toward the opposite end. In this mosaic, constructed from two images taken <br />after the NEAR spacecraft was inserted into orbit, features as small as 120 feet <br />(35 meters) across can be seen. House-sized boulders are present in several places; <br />one lies on the edge of the giant crater separating the two ends of the asteroid. <br />A bright patch is visible on the asteroid in the top left-hand part of this image, <br />and shallow troughs can be see just below this patch. <br /><br />The troughs run parallel to the asteroid's long dimension.<br /><br />Built and managed by The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, <br />Laurel, Maryland, NEAR was the first spacecraft launched in <br />NASA's Discovery Program of low-cost, small-scale planetary missions. <br />See the NEAR web page at http://near.jhuapl.edu for more details. <br /><br />NASA / JHU.<br /><br />Andrew Brown.<br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080">"I suddenly noticed an anomaly to the left of Io, just off the rim of that world. It was extremely large with respect to the overall size of Io and crescent shaped. It seemed unbelievable that something that big had not been visible before".</font> <em><strong><font color="#000000">Linda Morabito </font></strong><font color="#800000">on discovering that the Jupiter moon Io was volcanically active. Friday 9th March 1979.</font></em></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://www.launchphotography.com/</font><br /><br /><font size="1" color="#000080">http://anthmartian.googlepages.com/thisislandearth</font></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://web.me.com/meridianijournal</font></p> </div>

 

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This picture of 433 Eros, the first of an asteroid taken from an orbiting spacecraft, <br />is a mosaic of four images obtained by NEAR on February 14, 2000, <br />immediately after the spacecraft's insertion into orbit. <br /><br />We are looking down over the north pole of Eros at one of the largest craters on the <br />surface, which measures 4 miles (6 kilometers) across. Inside the crater walls are <br />subtle variations in brightness that hint at some layering of the rock in <br />which the crater formed. Narrow grooves that run parallel to the long axis <br />of 433 Eros cut through the southeastern part of the crater rim. <br />A house-sized boulder is present near the floor of the crater; it appears to<br />have rolled down the bowl-shaped crater wall. A large number of boulders is also <br />present on other parts of the asteroid's surface. The surface of the asteroid is <br />heavily cratered, indicating that Eros is relatively old.<br /><br />Built and managed by The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, <br />Laurel, Maryland, NEAR was the first spacecraft launched in <br />NASA's Discovery Program of low-cost, small-scale planetary missions. <br />See the NEAR web page at http://near.jhuapl.edu for more details. <br /><br />NASA / JHU.<br /><br />Andrew Brown. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080">"I suddenly noticed an anomaly to the left of Io, just off the rim of that world. It was extremely large with respect to the overall size of Io and crescent shaped. It seemed unbelievable that something that big had not been visible before".</font> <em><strong><font color="#000000">Linda Morabito </font></strong><font color="#800000">on discovering that the Jupiter moon Io was volcanically active. Friday 9th March 1979.</font></em></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://www.launchphotography.com/</font><br /><br /><font size="1" color="#000080">http://anthmartian.googlepages.com/thisislandearth</font></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://web.me.com/meridianijournal</font></p> </div>

 

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NEAR Shoemaker's investigation of 433 Eros from low altitude orbit continues <br />to bring the asteroid's history into sharper focus. This pair of images, taken <br />April 18, 2000, from an orbital height of 99 kilometers (61 miles), shows the <br />dissimilarity of two different regions of the asteroid. The left panel shows a region <br />typical of 433 Eros, whereas the right panel shows the inside of the saddle. <br />As the images show, the saddle region has far fewer craters.<br />Craters are formed by the explosive impacts of asteroid fragments that have rained <br />onto the surface over the eons. A freshly exposed surface will have fewer <br />craters than a surface exposed to space for a longer time. <br />The lesser number of craters in the saddle shows that it has been wiped clean, <br />or "resurfaced," by geologic processes relatively late in 433 Eros' history.<br /><br />Built and managed by The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, <br />Laurel, Maryland, NEAR was the first spacecraft launched in <br />NASA's Discovery Program of low-cost, small-scale planetary missions. <br />See the NEAR web page at http://near.jhuapl.edu for more details. <br /><br />NASA / JHU.<br /><br />Andrew Brown. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080">"I suddenly noticed an anomaly to the left of Io, just off the rim of that world. It was extremely large with respect to the overall size of Io and crescent shaped. It seemed unbelievable that something that big had not been visible before".</font> <em><strong><font color="#000000">Linda Morabito </font></strong><font color="#800000">on discovering that the Jupiter moon Io was volcanically active. Friday 9th March 1979.</font></em></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://www.launchphotography.com/</font><br /><br /><font size="1" color="#000080">http://anthmartian.googlepages.com/thisislandearth</font></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://web.me.com/meridianijournal</font></p> </div>

 

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Post deleted by 3488 <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080">"I suddenly noticed an anomaly to the left of Io, just off the rim of that world. It was extremely large with respect to the overall size of Io and crescent shaped. It seemed unbelievable that something that big had not been visible before".</font> <em><strong><font color="#000000">Linda Morabito </font></strong><font color="#800000">on discovering that the Jupiter moon Io was volcanically active. Friday 9th March 1979.</font></em></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://www.launchphotography.com/</font><br /><br /><font size="1" color="#000080">http://anthmartian.googlepages.com/thisislandearth</font></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://web.me.com/meridianijournal</font></p> </div>

 

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In this image, taken April 17, 2000, from a height of 101 kilometers (63 miles), <br />above 433 Eros the shadows highlight small-scale surface features. <br />The surface is pockmarked with craters ranging in size up to the 2.8-kilometer (1.74-mile) <br />diameter crater in the center of the image. <br />The smallest craters which can be resolved are about <br />20 meters (65 feet) across. <br />In lower right corner of the image, 20-meter boulders <br />can be seen that were not <br />evident in images from higher altitudes. <br /><br />Built and managed by The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, <br />Laurel, Maryland, <br />NEAR was the first spacecraft launched in NASA's Discovery Program of low-cost, <br />small-scale planetary missions. <br />See the NEAR web page at http://near.jhuapl.edu for more details. <br /><br />NASA / JHU. <br /><br />Andrew Brown. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080">"I suddenly noticed an anomaly to the left of Io, just off the rim of that world. It was extremely large with respect to the overall size of Io and crescent shaped. It seemed unbelievable that something that big had not been visible before".</font> <em><strong><font color="#000000">Linda Morabito </font></strong><font color="#800000">on discovering that the Jupiter moon Io was volcanically active. Friday 9th March 1979.</font></em></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://www.launchphotography.com/</font><br /><br /><font size="1" color="#000080">http://anthmartian.googlepages.com/thisislandearth</font></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://web.me.com/meridianijournal</font></p> </div>