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May 2, 2021
The asteroid belt is the region between Mars and Jupiter, where the bulk of all asteroids in the solar system is concentrated. Hundreds of thousands of them have been discovered to date. Therefore, the violent imagination of science fiction writers presents this area as an insurmountable obstacle for spaceships that risked flying over it. However, by earthly standards, the asteroid belt is quite empty, since for us the distances between asteroids are enormous and amount to hundreds of thousands of kilometers.
Asteroid Gaspra. Photo of the Galileo spacecraft 1991.
In 1973, Pioneer 10 became the first spacecraft to cross the asteroid belt. Since then, several spacecraft have flown by without incident on the way to the outer planets of the solar system, and the orbits of known asteroids are now being laid down in flight programs. The first asteroid explored by a spacecraft was the asteroid (951) Gaspra.
It was discovered by the Russian astronomer G.N. Neuymin in 1916 in the Crimea and named after the Crimean village of Gaspra. In 1989, the Galileo spacecraft was launched to explore Jupiter and its moons. In 1991, the device, flying through the asteroid belt, approached Gaspra as close as possible. Then several dozen photographs were transmitted to the Earth, the nearest of which were taken from a distance of 5,300 km. Galileo managed to photograph about 80% of the asteroid's surface.
Image above: Gaspra (top), Deimos (left), Phobos (right). Gaspra (top), Deimos (left), Phobos (right).
Gaspra has an elongated, irregular shape with dimensions of 18 × 10 × 9 km. It is comparable in size to the Mars satellite Deimos. On the surface of the asteroid, many small impact craters and ditches up to 2.5 km long and up to 300 m wide were found. Gaspra belongs to the S-class asteroids. Its surface, with an average density of 2.7 g / cm³, is rich in olivine and pyroxene.
Scientists were puzzled by the presence on Gaspra of a large amount of regolith (debris that covers the surface of atmospheric planets, satellites and small cosmic bodies). It is possible that Gaspra received an additional amount of regolith during a cosmic collision that formed the Flora family, to which Gaspra is attributed.
Galileo spacecraft flew closer to Amalthea - Moon of Jupiter
Some researchers believe that it was this family that was the source of the cosmic body that fell to Earth 65 million years ago and caused the mass extinction of many animal species, including dinosaurs.
Related links:
ROSCOSMOS Press Release: https://www.roscosmos.ru/30942/
Moscow Planetarium: https://www.roscosmos.ru/tag/moskovskiy-planetariy/
Asteroid: https://www.roscosmos.ru/tag/asteroid/
Images (NASA), Text, Credits: ROSCOSMOS/Orbiter.ch Aerospace/Roland Berga.
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