Dwarf Planets and Asteriods Flashcards
Why would Dawn have gone to Vesta but not Pallas
Pallas has a high orbital eccentricity which makes it relatively inaccessible
What is the naming convention for Jovian trojans
what is the numerically amazing fact about Jovian trojans
Ones at L4 are named after Greeks in the war
Ones at L5 are named after Trojans in the war
There may be as many Jovian trojans as there are asteriods in the main belt
What are the names of Pluto’s moons
Charon (1978)
Nix (2005)
Hydra (2005)
Kerberos (2011)
Styx (2012)
who discovered Charon
what is its diameter
James Christy
1207km
What are the five known dwarf planets
Ceres (1801)
Pluto (1930)
Haumea (2004)
Makemake (2005)
Eris (2005)
What is the name of the classical Kuiper belt objects which lie in orbits untouched by Neptune (as opposed to the resonant Kuiper belt objects)
cubewanos
What is the current estimate for the diameter of Pluto (and Eris for comparison)
Pluto - 2372km
Eris - 2326km +- 12km (but Eris is denser and more massive)
What is the smallest dwarf planet
diameter?
an distance from sun in AU
Ceres
938km
2.77 AU
What is the name for the objects that exist 30 to well beyond 100 AU with high orbital eccentricities, as a result of gravitational affects of the gas giants
Scattered Disk Objects (SDOs)
When was Chiron discovered, and how big
what was it the first of to be discovered
1977
233km
First Centaur to be discovered
Centaurs are minor planets orbitting the asteriod belt and the Kuiper belt
Chiron is named after the Centaur Chiron in Greek mythology
What are the most common types of asteriods
What is the largest of this type
What are the other principle types
C-type carbonaceous
Hygiea
Ceres is a C-group, G-type
S-type (stony objects)
M-type (metallic objects)
What do you call a minor planet or moon that shares an orbit with another larger object but doesn’t collide -
and why doesn’t it collide
Which planet has the only known satellites bearing these objects
When was one discovered around earth
a Trojan
It doesn’t collide because its at a Lagrangian point (L4 or L5) 60degrees ahead and behind the main body
Saturn
in 2011 NASA announced earth had a trojan 2010TK7 (300m diameter in L4 position 60 degrees ahead of earth)
What spacecraft is in orbit around Ceres
when did it get there
when was it at Vesta
Dawn
6 Mar 2015
Vesta - 16 July 2011
What are the 5 biggest asteriods (and dwarf planet) in the asteriod belt in terms of diameter
Ceres
Pallas ( but its less massive than Vesta)
Vesta
Hygiea
Interamnia
In terms of AU, how far out is the Kuiper belt
how big is it compared to the asteriod belt
What are the three dwarf planets in the Kuiper belt
What two interesting moons are thought to have originated here
30-50 AU
20 x as wide and 20-200 times as massive as the asteriod belt
Pluto, Haumea and Makemake
Triton and Phoebe
What comet studying mission was launced on Ariane 5 in March 2004
What was the name of its lander
Rosetta
Philae
What comet did R reach, and when did the lander perform its historic touch down
When did the lander wake up
For kudos what other major asteroid did R do a flyby of (and when)
67P / Churyumov-Gerasimenko
12 Nov 2014
14 June 2015
Lutetia (July 2010) - named after the Roman name for Paris
What is particularly special about Vesta
It is also the brightest asteroid visible from earth
Who discovered Ceres and when
Why was it called Ceres
Under what circumstances did he discover it, and who else was looking for it
Giuseppe Piazzi at Palermo on 1 January 1801
Ceres was the Roman patron goddess of Sicily and Piazzi was from the University of Palermo
He was working on a catalogue of fixed stars, when one of his stars moved!
Baron Franz Xavier von Zach of Gotha, convinced of a planet Mars and Jupiter, assembled a group of leading astronomers in 1800, in Germany, with each taking a piece of the sky to survey. They called themselves the ‘Celestial Police’
Piazzi, was not connected, and his discovery was accidental
What is the diameter of Ceres
How many AU is Ceres from the Sun
938km
2.77AU
Who came up with the name ‘asteroid’ and why
William Herschel in 1802, because other than their rapid movement they appeared indistinguishable from stars. Therefore asteroid comes from asteroeides meaning “star-like”
but they continued to be called planets from several decades - this was only dropped once so many had been found in the early 1850s
Who discovered Pallas, and when
What else did he famously discover and when?
Under what circumstances was Pallas discovered
Heinrich Olbers in 1802
He also discovered Vesta in 1807
Olbers was one of two astronomers who had confirmed that Ceres was an asteroid. It was whilst attempting to locate Ceres that he noticed Pallas, coincidentally passing Ceres at that time. (It first it was estimated to be 3,380km in diameter - how wrong eh)
Can you name all the Planets as known between 1807 and 1845
Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars
Vesta, Juno, Ceres, Pallas
Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus
What probable Dwarf Planet is known as the anti-Pluto because it is locked in the same resonance, but is out of phase (i.e. at aphelion when pluto is at perihelion), and with orbit points almost opposite direction from pluto’s
What is the name of its large moon
Orcus (The Etruscan equivalent of Pluto - and later an alternate name for Pluto)
Vanth

