list of noteworthy asteroids

The following is a list of noteworthy asteroids in our Solar system. For a more complete list of asteroids in sequential numerical order, see List of asteroids. Note: each asteroid is given a unique sequential identifying number after its orbit is precisely determined. Prior to this, asteroids are known only by their systematic name or provisional designation, such as "1950 DA".

Largest known asteroids within Jupiter's orbit

umber !! Name	Diameter (km) !! Mean Distance from Sun (in AU) !! Date Discovered !! Discoverer
Ceres	1003	2.766	January 1 1801	Piazzi, G.
Pallas	608	2.773	March 28 1802	Olbers, H. W.
Vesta	538	2.361	March 29 1807	Olbers, H. W.
0	Hygiea	450	3.136	April 12 1849	de Gasparis, A.
1	Euphrosyne	370	3.148	September 1 1854	Ferguson, J.
04	Interamnia	350	3.067	October 2 1910	Cerulli, V.
11	Davida	323	3.170	May 30 1903	Dugan, R. S.
5	Cybele	309	3.437	March 8 1861	Tempel, E. W.
2	Europa	289	3.099	February 4 1858	Goldschmidt, H.
24	Hektor	283	5.203	February 10 1907	Kopff, A.
51	Patientia	276	3.060	December 4 1899	Charlois, A.
5	Eunomia	272	2.644	July 29 1851	de Gasparis, A.
6	Psyche	250	2.919	March 17 1851	de Gasparis, A.
8	Doris	250	3.109	September 19 1857	Goldschmidt, H.
2	Undina	250	3.189	July 7 1867	Peters, C. H. F.
24	Bamberga	246	2.682	February 25 1892	Palisa, J.
Juno	240	2.667	September 1 1804	Harding, K. L.
4	Themis	234	3.129	April 5 1853	de Gasparis, A.
5	Arethusa	230	3.073	November 23 1867	Luther, R.

Retrograde and high-inclination asteroids

Asteroids with orbital inclinations greater than 90° orbit in a retrograde direction. There are only eight (as of August 2004) retrograde asteroids known, only two of which are numbered. This makes them the rarest group of all. High-inclination asteroids are either Mars-crossers (probably in the process of being ejected from the solar system) or damocloids.

umber !!width=70\| Name !! Inclination !!width=110\| Discovery date !! Comment
lign="right"\| 5496	1973 NA	align="right"\| 67.999	July 4, 1973	A Mars-crosser and Near-Earth object.
lign="right"\| 20461	Dioretsa	align="right"\| 160.400	June 8, 1999	This outer-planet crosser is a damocloid and scattered disk object (SDO); 2000 HE₄₆ may have split off from Dioretsa.
lign="right"\| 65407	2002 RP₁₂₀	align="right"\| 119.112	September 4, 2002	This outer-planet crosser is a damocloid and SDO.
	1999 LE₃₁	align="right"\| 151.867	June 12, 1999	A damocloid, SDO, Jupiter- and Saturn-crosser asteroid.
	2000 DG₈	align="right"\| 129.381	February 25, 2000	A damocloid and SDO. Crosses all the outer planets except Neptune.
	2000 HE₄₆	align="right"\| 158.459	April 29, 2000	This outer-planet crosser is a damocloid and SDO. May be a fragment of 20461 Dioretsa.
	2001 AU₄₃	align="right"\| 72.132	January 4, 2001	A Mars-crosser and Near-Earth object.
	2002 CE₁₀	align="right"\| 145.457	February 6, 2002	A damocloid, SDO, Jupiter- and Saturn-crosser asteroid.
	2002 VQ₉₄	align="right"\| 70.513	November 11, 2002	A damocloid and SDO. It is an outer-planet crosser and almost a Jupiter outer-grazer.
	2002 XU₉₃	align="right"\| 77.904	December 4, 2002	A damocloid and SDO. It is almost an Uranus outer-grazer.
	2003 EH₁	align="right"\| 70.790	March 6, 2003	A Mars-crosser, Near-Earth object and Jupiter inner-grazer.
	2004 HV₆₀	align="right"\| 90.835	April 25, 2004	Later (May 9) reclassified as comet C/2004 HV60 (Spacewatch), with a parabolic orbit.
	2004 LG	align="right"\| 70.725	June 9, 2004	A Mercury- through Mars-crosser and Near-Earth object.
	2004 NN₈	align="right"\| 165.377	July 13, 2004	This outer-planet crosser could even be on a path headed out of the Solar System (eccentricity ~0.9875).

Other noteworthy asteroids

umber !! Name !! Diameter (km) !! Year Discovered !! Comment
Astraea	117	December 8 1845	First asteroid discovered in 38 years after original four
1	Dana	82	September 9 1860	First asteroid to have a non-ASCII name
2	Erato	95	September 14 1860	First asteroid to be co-discovered by two people
0	Antiope	80 + 80	October 1 1866	Double asteroid with two nearly equal components; its double nature was discovered using adaptive optics
39	Juewa	162	October 10 1874	First asteroid discovered in China, by James Craig Watson. The name was chosen by Chinese officials: 瑞華, or in modern pinyin, ruìhuá
43	Ida	56×24×21	September 29 1884	Visited by Galileo probe
nbsp;	Dactyl	1.4	1991	Moon of 243 Ida
53	Mathilde	66×48×46	November 12 1885	Visited by NEAR Shoemaker
88	Glauke	32	February 20 1890	Exceptionally slow rotation period of about 1200 hours (2 months)
23	Brucia	36	December 22 1891	First asteroid discovered by means of astrophotography rather than visual observation
33	Eros	13×13×33	August 13 1898	Visited by NEAR Shoemaker
24	Hektor	370×195	February 10 1907	Largest Jovian Trojan asteroid discovered
44	Hidalgo	October 31 1920	Longest orbital period of any asteroid in the main asteroid belt
51	Gaspra	19×12×11	July 30 1916	Visited by Galileo probe
125	China	October 30, 1957	First asteroid discovery to be credited to an institution rather than a person
566	Icarus	June 27 1949	Apollo class asteroid; perihelion is closer to the Sun than Mercury
620	Geographos	2	September 14 1951	Apollo class asteroid
743	Schmidt	17	September 24 1960	First asteroid to be co-discovered by three people
060	Chiron	170	October 18 1977	First Centaur to be discovered
063	Bacchus	April 24 1977
200	Phaethon	5	October 11, 1983	First asteroid discovered from space
753	Cruithne	5	October 10 1986	Unusual Earth-associated orbit
179	Toutatis	4.5×2.4×1.9	January 4 1989	Closely approached Earth on September 29th, 2004
769	Castalia	1.8×0.8	August 9 1989	First asteroid to be imaged
261	Eureka	June 20 1990	First Martian Trojan asteroid (L₅ point) discovered (not yet officially recognized as such)
1885	1990 SS	September 25, 1990	First automated discovery of a Near-Earth Object (NEO)
5874	1996 TL₆₆	October 9, 1996	First asteroid to be co-discovered by four people
9075	1950 DA	1.1	February 23 1950	Will approach Earth very closely in 2880
nbsp;	1997 XR₂	1997	First asteroid to rank greater than zero on the impact-risk Torino scale (it's ranked 1)
nbsp;	1998 KY₂₆	0.030	June 2 1998	Approached within 800,000 km of Earth
nbsp;	2001 QR₃₂₂	January 2003	First known Neptune Trojan asteroid
nbsp;	2002 AA₂₉	0.1	January 9 2002	Unusual Earth-associated orbit
nbsp;	2004 FH	0.030	2004	Discovered before it approached within 43,000 km of Earth on March 18, 2004.
nbsp;	2004 JG₆	0.5–1	May 10 2004	Six-month orbital period is second shortest, second only to Mercury
nbsp;	2004 MN₄	2004	Second asteroid to rank greater than one on the Torino scale (it was ranked as high as 4; now back to 1)

Asteroids with the same or similar names as moons

umber !! Name !! Namesake !! Moon of
Metis	Metis	Jupiter
7	Thetis	Tethys	Saturn
4	Themis	Themis	Saturn (fictitious)
8	Leda	Leda	Jupiter
2	Europa	Europa	Jupiter
3	Kalypso	Calypso	Saturn
5	Pandora	Pandora	Saturn
4	Galatea	Galatea	Neptune
5	Io	Io	Jupiter
06	Dione	Dione	Saturn
13	Amalthea	Amalthea	Jupiter
71	Ophelia	Ophelia	Uranus
04	Kallisto	Callisto	Jupiter
18	Bianca	Bianca	Uranus
39	Adrastea	Adrastea	Jupiter
02	Clarissa	Larissa	Neptune
48	Kressida	Cressida	Uranus
58	Carmen	Carme	Jupiter
77	Rhea	Rhea	Saturn
93	Titania	Titania	Uranus
66	Desdemona	Desdemona	Uranus
00	Rosalinde	Rosalind	Uranus
036	Ganymed	Ganymede	Jupiter
162	Larissa	Larissa	Neptune
285	Julietta	Juliet	Uranus
809	Prometheus	Prometheus	Saturn
810	Epimetheus	Epimetheus	Saturn
758	Cordelia	Cordelia	Uranus
450	Pan	Pan	Saturn
313	Protea	Proteus	Neptune

Numbered asteroids that are also comets

umber !! Name !! Cometary name !! Comment
060	Chiron	95P/Chiron	Discovered in 1977 as the first Centaur asteroid, later found to display cometary behavior (including a coma)
015	Wilson-Harrington	107P/Wilson-Harrington	In 1992, it was realized that asteroid 1979VA's orbit matched it with the positions of the lost comet Wilson-Harrington (1949 III)
968	Elst-Pizarro	133P/Elst-Pizarro	Discovered in 1996 as a comet, but orbitally matched to asteroid 1979 OW₇

Note there are a quite a few other cases where a non-numbered asteroid with only a systematic designation (such as 2001 OG108) turned out to be a comet. The above table lists only numbered asteroids that are also comets.

Asteroids that were misnamed and renamed

In earlier times, before the modern numbering and naming rules were in effect, asteroids were sometimes given numbers and names before their orbits were precisely known. And in a few cases duplicate names were given to the same object (with modern use of computers to calculate and compare orbits with old recorded positions, this type of error no longer occurs). This led to a few cases where asteroids had to be renamed. http://pdssbn.astro.umd.edu/SBNast/archive/DISCOVER/discnote.tab

330 Adalberta

An object discovered March 18 1892 by Max Wolf with provisional designation "1892 X" was named 330 Adalberta, but was lost and never recovered. In 1982 it was determined that the observations leading to the designation of 1892 X were stars, and the object never existed. The name and number 330 Adalberta was then reused for another asteroid discovered by Max Wolf on February 2 1910, which had the provisional designation A910 CB.

525 Adelaide

The object A904 EB discovered March 14 1904 by Max Wolf was named 525 Adelaide and was subsequently lost. Later, the object 1930 TA discovered October 3 1930 by Sylvain Arend was named 1171 Rusthawelia. In those pre-computer days, it was not realized until 1958 that these were one and the same object. The name Rusthawelia was kept (and discovery credited to Arend); the name 525 Adelaide was reused for the object 1908 EKa discovered October 21 1908 by Joel Hastings Metcalf.

715 Transvaalia and 933 Susi

The object 1911 LX discovered April 22 1911 by H. E. Wood was named 715 Transvaalia. On April 23 1920, the object 1920 GZ was discovered and named 933 Susi. In 1928 it was realized that these were one and the same object. The name Transvaalia was kept, and the name and number 933 Susi was reused for the object 1927 CH discovered February 10 1927 by Karl Reinmuth.

864 Aase and 1078 Mentha

The object A917 CB discovered February 13 1917 by Max Wolf was named 864 Aase, and the object 1926 XB discovered December 7 1926 by Karl Reinmuth was named 1078 Mentha. In 1958 it was discovered that these were one and the same object. In 1974, this was resolved by keeping the name 1078 Mentha and reusing the name and number 864 Aase for the object 1921 KE, discovered September 30 1921 by Karl Reinmuth.

1095 Tulipa and 1449 Virtanen

The object 1928 DC discovered February 24 1928 by Karl Reinmuth was named 1095 Tulipa, and the object 1938 DO discovered February 20 1938 by Yrj Visl was named 1449 Virtanen. In 1966 it was discovered that these were one and the same object. The name 1449 Virtanen was kept and the name and number 1095 Tulipa was reused for the object 1926 GS discovered April 14 1926 by Karl Reinmuth.

1125 China and 3789 Zhongguo

The object 1928 UF discovered October 25 1928 by Zhang Yuzhe (Y. C. Chang) was named 1125 China, and was later lost. Later, the object 1957 UN1 was discovered on October 30 1957 at Purple Mountain Observatory and was initially incorrectly believed to be the rediscovery of the object 1928 UF. The name and number 1125 China were then reused for the object 1957 UN1, and 1928 UF remained lost. In 1986, the object 1986 QK1 was discovered and proved to be the real rediscovery of 1928 UF. This object was given the new number and name 3789 Zhongguo. Note Zhongguo is the Mandarin Chinese word for "China", in pinyin transliteration.

Asteroid 1317

The object 1914 UQ discovered April 20 1914 by G. N. Neujmin was named 787 Moskva (and retains that name to this day). The object 1934 FD discovered on March 19 1934 by C. Jackson was given the sequence number 1317. In 1938, G. N. Neujmin found that asteroid 1317 and 787 Moskva were one and the same object. The sequence number 1317 was later reused for the object 1935 RC discovered on September 1 1935 by Karl Reinmuth; that object is now known as 1317 Silvretta.

Record-setting close approaches by asteroids to Earth

Only asteroids that break a previous record are included. Note that near-earth object detection technology drastically improved around the turn of the century, so objects being detected today (in 2004) would have been missed only a decade earlier.

Distance (AU) !! Distance Mm !! Date of closest approach !! Object
.000043	align="center"\| 6	colspan=2 align="center"\|radius of Earth
.000086	align="center"\| 13	2004 March 31	2004 FU₁₆₂
.00033	align="center"\| 49	2004 March 18	2004 FH
.00056	align="center"\| 84	2003 September 27	2003 SQ₂₂₂
.00072	align="center"\| 108	1994 December 9	1994 XM₁
.00099	align="center"\| 148	1993 May 20	1993 KA₂
.00114	align="center"\| 171	1991 January 18	1991 BA
.00257	align="center"\| 386	colspan=2 align="center"\|average distance of the Moon
.00457	align="center"\| 684	1989 March 22	4581 Asclepius
.00495	align="center"\| 741	1937 October 30	69230 Hermes

Exceptionally slow-rotating objects

Rotation periods have been determined for only a small fraction of asteroids (from light curves or from radar studies). Most asteroids have rotation periods of less than 24 hours; however, 288 Glauke has a rotation period of about 50 days.

valign="middle"\|Name !! Rotation period (hours)
288 Glauke	1200.
1220 Crocus	737.
253 Mathilde	417.7
1998 QR₅₂	234.
3691 Bede	226.8
9969 Braille	226.4
(38071) 1999 GU₃	216.
(65407) 2002 RP₁₂₀	200.

See also: Minor Planet Lightcurve Parameters

External links

Books

Dictionary of Minor Planet Names, 5th ed.: Prepared on Behalf of Commission 20 Under the Auspices of the International Astronomical Union, Lutz D. Schmadel, ISBN 3540002383

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