298 Baptistina

298 Baptistina is a common Main belt asteroid. It was found by Auguste Charlois on September 9, 1890 in Nice.

298 Baptistina
298Bap-LB1-mag15.jpg
Asteroid 298 Baptistina (apparent magnitude 15.2) near a mag 15.3 star
Discovery
Discovered byAuguste Charlois
Discovery date9 September 1890
Designations
MPC designation(298) Baptistina
Main belt,
Baptistina family
Orbital characteristics[1]
Epoch 31 July 2016 (JD 2457600.5)
Uncertainty parameter 0
Observation arc123.99 yr (45289 d)
Aphelion2.4805 AU (371.08 Gm)
Perihelion2.0475 AU (306.30 Gm)
2.2640 AU (338.69 Gm)
Eccentricity0.095630
3.41 yr (1244.3 d)
209.69°
0° 17m 21.588s / day
Inclination6.2884°
8.2161°
135.004°
Physical characteristics
Dimensions13–30 km[2][3]
16.23 h (0.676 d)[1]
16.23±0.02 hours[3]
X-type
11.2

Although it has an orbit similar to the Flora family asteroids, it was found to be an unrelated asteroid.[4]

A 2007 US-Czech study decided that 298 Baptistina may be the biggest remnant of a 170 km (110 mile) asteroid that was destroyed about 160 million years ago in an impact with a smaller body, making the Baptistina family of asteroids and that the Baptistina event may have created the eventual impact asteroid believed by many to have caused the K/T extinction event about 65 million years ago.[5] This is the K/T impactor believed to be shown in the geological record.[6] This theory has not, as yet, found general acceptance among the scientific community.

298 Baptistina Media

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 "298 Baptistina". JPL Small-Body Database. NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Retrieved 11 May 2016.
  2. Reddy V., et al. (2008). Composition of 298 Baptistina: Implications for K–T Impactor Link, Asteroids, Comets, Meteors conference.
  3. 3.0 3.1 Majaess D., Higgins D., Molnar L., Haegert M., Lane D., Turner D., Nielsen I. (2008). New Constraints on the Asteroid 298 Baptistina, the Alleged Family Member of the K/T Impactor, accepted for publication in the JRASC
  4. M. Florczak et al. A Visible Spectroscopic Survey of the Flora Clan, Icarus Vol. 133, p. 233 (1998)
  5. Bottke WF, Vokrouhlický D Nesvorný D. (2007) An asteroid breakup 160 Myr ago as the probable source of the K/T impactor. Nature 449, 48-53
  6. "Space pile-up 'condemned dinos'". Sept. 5, 2007.