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Asteroid Fact Sheet

[Gaspra]

Information on Selected Asteroids

The image above is a false color view of the asteroid 951 Gaspra taken by the Galileo spacecraft. Below is a table of information on selected asteroids, and at the bottom of the page are comments on the asteroids. All of the values for mass and many of the diameter values are only rough estimates. 
     Number      Diameter   ~Mass    Rotation    Orbital   Spectral   Semimajor      Orbital        Orbital
    and Name       (km)    10^15 kg   Period     Period     Class       Axis       Eccentricity   Inclination
    --------     --------  --------  --------    -------   --------   ---------    ------------   -----------
   1 Ceres         974    1,000,000  9.078 hrs   4.60 yrs      C       2.767 AU        0.079        10.6 deg
   2 Pallas        538      250,000  7.811 hrs   4.61 yrs      U       2.771 AU        0.235        34.8 deg
   3 Juno          268       20,000  7.21  hrs   4.36 yrs      S       2.670 AU        0.256        13.0 deg
   4 Vesta         526      300,000  5.342 hrs   3.63 yrs      U       2.362 AU        0.088         7.1 deg
 243 Ida         58 x 23      100    4.633 hrs   4.84 yrs      S       2.862 AU        0.044         2.1 deg
 433 Eros        40 x 16        5    5.270 hrs   1.76 yrs      S       1.458 AU        0.223        10.8 deg
 951 Gaspra      19 x 12       10    7.042 hrs   3.29 yrs      S       2.210 AU        0.146         5.1 deg
1566 Icarus        1.4       0.001   2.273 hrs   1.12 yrs      U       1.078 AU        0.827        23.0 deg             
1620 Geographos    2.0       0.004   5.222 hrs   1.39 yrs      S       1.244 AU        0.335        13.3 deg
1862 Apollo        1.6       0.002   3.063 hrs   1.81 yrs      S       1.486 AU        0.566         6.4 deg
2060 Chiron        180       4000    5.9   hrs   50.7 yrs      B      13.704 AU        0.383         6.9 deg
4179 Toutatis     4 x 2.5    0.05    7-15 days   1.10 yrs      S       0.921 AU        0.634         0.5 deg
4769 Castalia   1.8 x 0.8    0.0005                                    0.550 AU        0.483         8.9 deg
1 Ceres - The largest and first discovered asteroid, by G. Piazzi on January 1, 1801. Ceres comprises nearly half the 2.3 x 10**21 kg total mass of all the asteroids.
2 Pallas - The 2nd largest asteroid and second asteroid discovered, by H. Olbers in 1802.
3 Juno - The 3rd asteroid discovered, by K. Harding in 1804.
4 Vesta - The 3rd largest asteroid, Vesta appears to have a basaltic crust overlying an olivine mantle, indicating differentiation has occurred. Imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope in 1995.
243 Ida - Imaged by Galileo on August 28, 1993. These images showed a small satellite, subsequently named Dactyl, in orbit about Ida.
433 Eros - Near-Earth asteroid scheduled to be studied by the NEAR mission, which will be put into orbit about Eros in December, 1998
951 Gaspra - Imaged by Galileo on Oct. 29, 1991.
1566 Icarus - Highly eccentric Earth-crossing orbit.
1620 Geographos - Scheduled to be visited by Clementine before a computer malfunction cut the mission short.
1862 Apollo - Earth-crossing asteroid.
2060 Chiron - Asteroid/Comet (95P/Chiron) in chaotic eccentric orbit near Saturn and Uranus. First perihelion since 1945 will occur on 14 February, 1996. Chiron is showing increased activity as it approaches the Sun.
4179 Toutatis - Double object, probably in contact, one 2.5 km and one 1.5 km diameter (estimated), imaged by Goldstone radar. Next close approach to Earth of this object (0.0354 AU) will be on 30 November 1996
4769 Castalia - Double-lobed near-Earth asteroid, each lobe about .75 km diameter. Imaged by Arecibo radar.
* Asteroid Home Page
* Directory to other Planetary Fact Sheets
[Red bullet] Planetary home page
For questions about Planetary data at the NSSDC, please contact:
David Williams, dwilliams@nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov, (301)441-4197
NSSDC/Hughes STX, Suite 400, 7701 Greenbelt Rd.
Greenbelt, MD 20770 USA
[NSSDC logo]
NASA Official: J.H. King, king@nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov
Last Updated: 06 June 1995, DRW

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