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Asteroid

  • Reference work entry
Encyclopedia of Planetary Science

Part of the book series: Encyclopedia of Earth Science ((EESS))

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One of a group of small planetary bodies (also called minor planets or planetoids) orbiting the Sun, primarily between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. The empirical Titius—Bode relation (q.v.) can be used to represent the distances of most of the planets from the Sun fairly accurately with one exception: it predicts a planet at 2.8 AU from the Sun where none exists. Late in the 18th century a search for the ‘missing’ planet was undertaken by six German astronomers who called themselves the ‘celestial police’. Their effort had barely begun when they were scooped by the Sicilian astronomer Giuseppe Piazzi (q.v.), who was measuring stellar positions from his observatory near Palermo. On New Year's Day, 1801, Piazzi discovered the first asteroid, which he named Ceres after the patron Roman goddess of Sicily. Its motion showed that Ceres must be at a distance of 2.8 AU, just as the Titius—Bode relation predicts. For predicting the position of Ceres, C.F. Gauss (q.v.) developed the first...

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  1. Linda M. French
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© 1997 Chapman & Hall

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French, L.M. (1997). Asteroid . In: Encyclopedia of Planetary Science. Encyclopedia of Earth Science. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-4520-4_20

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-4520-4_20

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-0-412-06951-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4020-4520-2

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