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Sep. 12, 2021
Quite often, open asteroids are shaped like an object, fruit or crystal. For example, the asteroid Hector has an unusual dumbbell shape. The asteroid Eros has an elongated shape and looks like a peanut nut. But the asteroid Steins, photographed at close range in 2008 by the Rosetta probe, looks like a diamond-shaped crystal.
The asteroid was discovered in 1969 by the Soviet astronomer Nikolai Chernykh at the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory and named after the Soviet astronomer Karl Steins. In 1983, the asteroid was included in the catalog of minor planets under the number 2867 Steins. Steins' orbit does not stand out among the orbits of objects in the Main Belt. The maximum distance to the Sun is 2.71 AU. That is, the minimum is 2.02 AU.
In 2004, the Rosetta automatic interplanetary station of the European Space Agency and the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration was launched to investigate comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Asteroid Steins was investigated by the station along the way. In September 2008, the device flew 800 km from the asteroid, transmitting images to Earth. As it turned out, this asteroid with dimensions from 6.6 × 5.8 × 4.4 km has 23 craters on its surface with a diameter of 200 meters to 2 km.
In 2012, the International Astronomical Union Working Group on Nomenclature announced a naming system for relief structures on Stein. Since the shape of the asteroid resembles a crystal, the names of precious and semi-precious stones were approved for impact structures - craters: emerald, aquamarine, alexandrite, sapphire, tourmaline and others. The largest crater with a diameter of 2.1 km was named after the hardest mineral on Earth - diamond. In addition to him, three more craters were discovered on the asteroid, with a diameter of more than one kilometer. They were named: Zircon, Chrysoberyl and Onyx. The almost crater-free plain in the southern hemisphere of the asteroid was named the Black Realm in honor of the asteroid's discoverer.
It remains a mystery to scientists how the asteroid, having several impact craters in size commensurate with its dimensions, did not collapse upon collision.
Source: Moscow Planetarium.
Related links:
ROSCOSMOS Press Release: https://www.roscosmos.ru/32510/
Moscow Planetarium: https://www.roscosmos.ru/tag/moskovskiy-planetariy/
Asteroid: https://www.roscosmos.ru/tag/asteroid/
Images, Text, Credits: ROSCOSMOS/Moscow Planetarium/Orbiter.ch Aerospace/Roland Berga.
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