Ceres
More fresh water than on Earth
Ceres is the largest asteroid we know of. Historically, this is why it was the first asteroid to be spotted and described. The mass of Ceres is 32% of the total mass of the asteroid belt.
Does that seem small to you? In fact, Ceres has 200 million cubic kilometers of water, which exceeds the amount of fresh water on Earth!
Ceres is so large that it is the only asteroid with a gravitational force high enough to curl its matter into the shape of a sphere.
Scientists believe Ceres is the "wettest" asteroid in the solar system. They believe they will find large amounts of water here. Astrophysicists estimate that Ceres is 30% water. Water on Ceres is stored in the form of ice and possibly as a liquid - under pressure inside.
Baptistina
mother of the killer dinosaurs
According to one hypothesis put forward in 2007 by scientists at the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder. a large asteroid shattered more than 160 million years ago. The debris of the split large asteroid was named the Baptistina family.
And one piece of it flew for 95 million years until it crashed into our planet. This led to a biological catastrophe and the extinction of the dinosaurs.
The moon, too, was hit by another piece of the Baptistina family, though 109 million years ago.
Cleopatra
Why astronomers named the asteroid in the shape of a dog bone in honor of the main beauty of Antiquity remains a mystery.
The asteroid is extremely remarkable. It is a giant metal dogbone that stretches 217 kilometers in length. In addition, Cleopatra has two companions, which is not often seen in asteroids.
Themis
an asteroid with organic molecules.
Themis is a unique asteroid. First, its surface is entirely covered by ice. And that ice is constantly renewing! So there is a constant source of water inside Themis!
Second, complex hydrocarbons are found on the surface of the ice. Including so-called precursor molecules to life.
Tautatis
An enemy of Earth with extremely erratic behavior.
An extremely odd little fellow. Particularly annoying because it has a small orbit and often comes close to Earth. So far, at a distance twice as large as ours to the Moon, but scientists are watching it closely. Its diameter is half that of the meteorite that destroyed the dinosaurs. But even such a "baby" is more than enough to throw us back to the Middle Ages.
The second trick of this asteroid is that it does not rotate around its axis, but...chaotically. The reason is that it is strongly influenced by both Jupiter and Earth at the same time.
Tautatis is in a 3:1 resonance with Jupiter and 1:4 with the Earth.
Because of this, its orbit cannot be accurately calculated. Astronomers estimate that the probability of a collision with Earth in the next 50 years is negligible. And in a few hundred years, Tautatis is likely to be ejected from the solar system.
We can only be glad that among these monsters there are no asteroids whose orbits intersect with Earth's.
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