NASA releases Hubble image of Asteriod 1Ceres

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/image...ature_404.html

I always had a hunch that this World Ceres would be shaped like a
baseball....

Matthew Ota

Matthew Ota wrote:
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/image...ature_404.html

I always had a hunch that this World Ceres would be shaped like a
baseball....

This looks almost fake being so perfectly spherical .. am I missing something
here? I thought asteroids were kind of jagged pieces of rock ...

Esmail Bonakdarian schrieb:
Matthew Ota wrote:

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/image...ature_404.html

I always had a hunch that this World Ceres would be shaped like a
baseball....


This looks almost fake being so perfectly spherical .. am I missing
something
here? I thought asteroids were kind of jagged pieces of rock ...

Not the big ones. The smaller they get, the more they look like
potatoes. Even Vesta looks rather spherical, apart from the big impact
crater on the south pole (this is the place where most HED meteorites -
like NWA 1109 - are said to come from)

Best,
Bernhard
http://theastronomers.com

On Sun, 11 Sep 2005 22:10:29 GMT, Esmail Bonakdarian
wrote:

This looks almost fake being so perfectly spherical .. am I missing something
here? I thought asteroids were kind of jagged pieces of rock ...

Ceres is about 1000km in diameter- half the size of Pluto. Anything that
big has enough self-gravity to become spherical.

_________________________________________________

Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com

Thank you Bernhard and Chris .. always learning new
things :-)

Best,
Esmail

I dunno...you sure they're not out in left field on this?

Matthew Ota wrote:
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/image...ature_404.html

I always had a hunch that this World Ceres would be shaped like a
baseball....

Matthew Ota

"Matthew Ota" wrote in message
oups.com...
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/image...ature_404.html

I always had a hunch that this World Ceres would be shaped like a
baseball....



Why don't they get their act together and send a craft there. Ceres has been
around since the 60's at least in the
the anals of solar system astronomy. They screw around with comets and such
but they don't send anything to the largest asteroid
known!! I remember seeing a representation of the size of ceres as a kid in
the 60's and immediately was amazed by it.

On Mon, 12 Sep 2005 04:18:48 GMT, "Mike Thomas" wrote:

Why don't they get their act together and send a craft there. Ceres has been
around since the 60's at least in the
the anals of solar system astronomy. They screw around with comets and such
but they don't send anything to the largest asteroid
known!! I remember seeing a representation of the size of ceres as a kid in
the 60's and immediately was amazed by it.

While I'm all for sending missions to every interesting body in the
Solar System, I would hardly characterize missions to comets as
"screwing around". Arguably we have much more to learn from comets than
we do from asteroids. We already have asteroidal material, and we are
pretty sure that their formation mechanisms are not unlike the
terrestrial planets. Comets, on the other hand, have the potential of
providing information about the formation of the Solar System that can't
be obtained from any other source.

_________________________________________________

Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com

I cannot believe that you are the only one that go the gist of my punny
baseball message.

It's the World Ceres! (The World Series)

Matthew Ota

"Chris L Peterson" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 12 Sep 2005 04:18:48 GMT, "Mike Thomas" wrote:

Why don't they get their act together and send a craft there. Ceres has
been
around since the 60's at least in the
the anals of solar system astronomy. They screw around with comets and
such
but they don't send anything to the largest asteroid
known!! I remember seeing a representation of the size of ceres as a kid
in
the 60's and immediately was amazed by it.

While I'm all for sending missions to every interesting body in the
Solar System, I would hardly characterize missions to comets as
"screwing around". Arguably we have much more to learn from comets than
we do from asteroids. We already have asteroidal material, and we are
pretty sure that their formation mechanisms are not unlike the
terrestrial planets. Comets, on the other hand, have the potential of
providing information about the formation of the Solar System that can't
be obtained from any other source.


For a supposed "astromonomer" you sure have a horse blinder attitude