Difference between revisions of "Asteroid"
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Asteroid
One of the many small celestial bodies revolving around the
sun, most of the orbits being between those of Mars and Jupiter.
Also called planetoid, minor planet . See
planet.
The term minor planet is preferred by many astronomers
but asteroid continues to be used in astronomical literature,
especially attributively, as in asteroid belt.
All asteroids with
determined orbits (except for a few discovered during World War
II) are numbered for identification in the order of their discovery.
The Ephemerides of the Minor Planets published by the U.S.S.R.
Academy of Sciences lists all numbered asteroids, data concerning
them, and their predicted positions. The daily positions of the
first four minor planets are tabulated in the American Ephemeris
and Nautical Almanac. Orbits have been determined for approximately
1700 asteroids. Asteroids have names as well as numbers, see
Table I.
The names are usually feminine but masculine names have been
used for asteroids closer to or farther away from the Sun than
the majority. The first asteroid to be given a masculine name,
Eros (number 443) was the first to be discovered inside the orbit
of Mars. The Trojan asteroids, named for heroes of the Trojan
war, are in the orbit of Jupiter.
References
This article is based on NASA's Dictionary of Technical Terms for Aerospace Use
