2867 Steins
The reasons for selecting 2867 Steins
However, there is still little known about asteroid Steins, it is an interesting E-type asteroid, in my opinion. 2867 Steins is the first asteroid studied by the Rosetta before the flyby of 800 km, at the speed of 8.6 km/s. This happened back in 2008. The images taken from the probe showed that asteroid has irregular shape, but no moons. The asteroid was taken several close-ups too. European Space Observatory (ESA) gave the body an unofficial name “A Diamond in the Sky”, after examining the photographs. They showed that the asteroid has a wide body and a shape of a gem. Interestingly enough, there was also a large crater with 2.1 km diameter on its surface and several smaller craters. Scientists named the largest “Diamond”. A separate area was named “Chernykh Regio” in honor of the asteroid’s discoverer.
2867 Steins was discovered by Nikolai Stepanovich Chernykh, at the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory, on November 4, 1969. By examining the space, the scientist discovered that there was a small moving object among the stars, which moved very slowly as compared to closer objects like asteroids, for example. He took the photographs of the object a few nights in a sequence, and about one year later, the object was re-investigated by him again and a definite trajectory was calculated. After it became approved by the official space body as the minor planet, the discoverer gave it the name 2867 Steins, and the asteroid was included in databases.
2867 Steins orbital characteristics include the orbital period 1326.736 d, with average orbital speed 19.27 km/s. Some physical characteristics of the asteroid: dimensions 6.67 x 5.81 x 4.47 km and mean radius 2.65 km. Temperature on the asteroid is about 181 K. It belongs to the spectral type E, its absolute magnitude (H) is 12.9. ibid
- Released 08/09/2008 9:58 am
- Description
Asteroid Steins seen from a distance of 800 km, taken by the OSIRIS imaging system from two different perspectives. The effective diameter of the asteroid is 5 km.
