Asteroid

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A composite image, to scale, of the asteroids that have been imaged at high resolution. As of 2011 they are, from largest to smallest: 4 Vesta, 21 Lutetia, 253 Mathilde, 243 Ida and its moon Dactyl, 433 Eros, 951 Gaspra, 2867 teins, 25143 Itokawa.

The largest asteroid in the previous image, Vesta (left), with Ceres (center) and Earth's Moon (right) shown to scale. Asteroids (from Greek 'star' and 'like, in form') are a class of small Solar System bodies in orbit around the Sun. They have also been called planetoids, especially the larger ones. These terms have historically been applied to any astronomical object orbiting the Sun that did not show the disk of a planet and was not observed to have the characteristics of an active comet, but as small objects in the outer Solar System were discovered, their volatilebased surfaces were found to more closely resemble comets, and so were often distinguished from traditional asteroids.[1] Thus the term asteroid has come increasingly to refer specifically to the small rocky and metallic bodies of the inner Solar System out to the orbit of Jupiter. They are grouped with the outer bodiescentaurs, Neptune trojans, and transNeptunian objectsas minor planets, which is the term preferred in astronomical circles.[2] This article will restrict the use of the term 'asteroid' to the minor planets of the inner Solar System. There are millions of asteroids, many thought to be the shattered remnants of planetesimals, bodies within the young Suns solar nebula that never grew large enough to become planets.[3] A large majority of known asteroids orbit in the asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter or co-orbital with Jupiter (the Jupiter Trojans). However, other orbital families exist with significant populations, including the near-Earth asteroids. Individual asteroids are classified by their characteristic spectra, with the majority falling into three main groups: C-type, S-type, and M-type. These were named after and are generally identified with carbon-rich, stony, and metallic compositions, respectively.

Discovery

243 Ida and its moon Dactyl. Dactyl is the first satellite of an asteroid to be discovered.

The first asteroid to be discovered, Ceres, was found in 1801 by Giuseppe Piazzi, and was originally considered to be a new planet.[note 1] This was followed by the discovery of other similar bodies, which with the equipment of the time appeared to be points of light, like stars, showing little or no planetary disc, though readily distinguishable from stars due to their apparent motions. This prompted the astronomer Sir William Herschel to propose the term "asteroid", from Greek , asteroeids 'star-like, star-shaped', from ancient Greek , astr 'star, planet'. In the early second half of the nineteenth century, the terms "asteroid" and "planet" (not always qualified as "minor") were still used interchangeably; for example, the Annual of Scientific Discovery for 1871, page 316, reads "Professor J. Watson has been awarded by the Paris Academy of Sciences, the astronomical prize, Lalande foundation, for the discovery of eight new asteroids in one year. The planet Lydia (No. 110), discovered by M. Borelly at the Marseilles Observatory [...] M. Borelly had previously discovered two planets bearing the numbers 91 and 99 in the system of asteroids revolving between Mars and Jupiter".

Exploration
See also: Asteroid mining and Colonization of the asteroids

951 Gaspra is the first asteroid to be imaged in close-up.

Vesta, imaged by the Dawn spacecraft

Until the age of space travel, objects in the asteroid belt were merely pinpricks of light in even the largest telescopes and their shapes and terrain remained a mystery. The best modern ground-based telescopes and the Earth-orbiting Hubble Space Telescope can resolve a small amount of detail on the surfaces of the largest asteroids, but even these mostly remain little more than fuzzy blobs. Limited information about the shapes and compositions of asteroids can be inferred from their light curves (their variation in brightness as they rotate) and their spectral properties, and asteroid sizes can be estimated by timing the lengths of star occulations (when an asteroid passes directly in front of a star). Radar imaging can yield good information about asteroid shapes and orbital and rotational parameters, especially for nearEarth asteroids. In terms of delta v and propellant requirements, NEOs are more easily accessible than the Moon.[59] The first close-up photographs of asteroid-like objects were taken in 1971 when the Mariner 9 probe imaged Phobos and Deimos, the two small moons of Mars, which are probably captured asteroids. These images revealed the irregular, potato-like shapes of most asteroids, as did later images from the Voyager probes of the small moons of the gas giants.

The first true asteroid to be photographed in close-up was 951 Gaspra in 1991, followed in 1993 by 243 Ida and its moon Dactyl, all of which were imaged by the Galileo probe en route to Jupiter. 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. Other asteroids briefly visited by spacecraft en route to other destinations include 9969 Braille (by Deep Space 1 in 1999), and 5535 Annefrank (by Stardust in 2002). In September 2005, the Japanese Hayabusa probe started studying 25143 Itokawa in detail and was plagued with difficulties, but returned samples of its surface to earth on June 13, 2010. The European Rosetta probe (launched in 2004) flew by 2867 teins in 2008 and 21 Lutetia, the second-largest asteroid visited to date, in 2010. In September 2007, NASA launched the Dawn Mission, which started orbiting the protoplanet 4 Vesta in July 2011, and is to orbit 1 Ceres in 2015. 4 Vesta is the largest asteroid visited to date. In May 2011, NASA announced the OSIRIS-REx sample return mission to asteroid 1999 RQ36, and is expected to launch in 2016. It has been suggested that asteroids might be used as a source of materials that may be rare or exhausted on earth (asteroid mining), or materials for constructing space habitats (see Colonization of the asteroids). Materials that are heavy and expensive to launch from earth may someday be mined from asteroids and used for space manufacturing and construction.