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Description
Asteroids and Meteoroids were created when the universe was created or as a result of a collision. Some travel through space on a circular journey, others erratically.
Those that orbit the sun between the planets of Mars and Jupiter are commonly
referred to as Asteroids. They were discovered after a search was carried out by astronomers who wanted to find out if a theory by
Johannes Kepler was correct or not. He predicted that the planets were spaced out according to a pattern of numbers. One of those numbers pointed to a location in space where there was no
planet. After searching, the asteroid Ceres was found. One theory is that asteroids are believed to be the remnants of a planet that
once existed but was destroyed by the gravititional pull of Jupiter. A second theory has at the beginning of the solar system, debris left over from the creation of the universe bonded together to
form planets such as Venus, Mars, Earth and Mercury. However due to Jupiter's gravitational pull, no planet could form between Jupiter and Mars.
Afterwards more asteroids were found whch led astronomers to the conclusion of a asteroid belt
containing hundreds of small and large objects. Their paths are erratic, it is believed that one of these asteroids hitting Earth is the cause of
the destruction of the dinosaurs.
Asteroids fall into three catagories :- 1221 Amor, 1862 Apollo and 2062 Aten. The table below gives a brief description of what they mean.
| Amors | Asteroids which cross Mars' orbit but do not quite reach the orbit of Earth. Eros -- target of the NEAR mission -- is a typical Amor. |
| Apollos | Asteroids which cross Earth's orbit with a period greater than 1 year. Geographos represents the Apollos. |
| Atens | Asteroids which cross Earth's orbit with a period less than 1 year. Ra-Shalom is a typical Aten. |
The table below details a number of asteroids whose information is made available from the N.A.S.A. website. Clicking on a link will allow you to see more information and possibly a photo
of the asteroid in question. If you want more information on asteroids then visit the NASA site.
Some pages when selected will contain a picture of the asteroid, some will contain the path the asteroid takes. If I have not generated a path picture for the asteroid you want, visit the
NASA Asteroid Simulater and replace 'CERES' with the asteroid you want e.g. Chiron. For some asteroids you will need to enter Number with the Name appended. For the FF asteroid, enter
the name 1995FF to get the details.
| Number | Name | Diameter ( Km ) | Mass ( 10^15 kg ) | Rotation Period ( days ) | Orbital Period ( days ) |
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Comments Pages 1
| | Anrich | March 31, 2008, 8:03 pm | | Yes I want to know is the sun a star? |
| | Donald | | | Donald, good point, I will check and correct my information. |
| | khushbu | | | what is the real meaning of asteroids and which mineral does it contain |
| | Donald | | | You have a great web site! Should not you list the last column of the asteroid data as (Earth) years, and not days? Even a high-speed bullet couldn't travel around the 'Sun' within the times stated. |
| | venus | | | who was the discover |
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