Facts about Asteroid

After this, other astronomers joined in the search and at least one new asteroid was discovered every year after that (except the wartime year 1945).

Each asteroid discovered is given a tentative name, then after at least three sightings and orbit determination, it is given a number, then a permanent name.

Vesta is the only main belt asteroid that is sometimes visible to the naked eye (in some very rare occasions, a near-Earth asteroid may be visible without technical aid).

Note that the term "biological mother" confuses the two sorts of surrogacy, and as such is best avoided.

Groups are relatively loose dynamical associations, whereas families are much "tighter" and are thought to be products of the catastrophic break-up of a large parent asteroid sometime in the past.

The first asteroid to be given a non-mythological name was 20 Massalia, named after the city of Marseilles.

In 1975, an asteroid taxonomic system—based on color, albedo, and spectral shape—was developed by Clark R. Chapman, David Morrison, and Ben Zellner.

Following that, the next asteroid encounters will involve the European Rosetta probe (launched in 2004), which will study 2867 Љteins and 21 Lutetia in 2008 and 2010.

Space weathering is believed to be at the root of a long-standing controversy that ordinary chondrites, which are the most abundant meteorites, do not seem abundant in the main asteroid belt.

Fifteen years later, he found 5 Astraea, the first new asteroid in 38 years.

An asteroid is a solid object, smaller than a planet, which in our Solar System orbits the Sun.

The first dedicated asteroid probe was NEAR Shoemaker, which photographed 253 Mathilde in 1997, before entering into orbit around 433 Eros, finally landing on its surface in 2001.

The largest asteroid in the inner solar system is 1 Ceres, with a diameter of about 900 kilometers.

The near-Earth asteroid 433 Eros had been discovered as long ago as 1898, and the 1930s brought a flurry of similar objects.

Asteroid discovery methods have drastically improved over the past two centuries.

On 13 December 2012, China's lunar orbiter Chang'e 2 flew within 2 miles (3.2 km) of the asteroid 4179 Toutatis on an extended mission.

Asteroid naming is not always a free-for-all: there are some types of asteroid for which rules have developed about the sources of names.