Scientists gasp at snapshot of Gaspra.The Galileo spacecraft recently sent back the best pictures yet of the asteroid Gaspra, snapped during the spacecraft's brief encounter with the asteroid last October. The new images have three times the resolution of previous images, providing scientists with more provocative clues about the asteroid's origin and its habitat.In the new photos, deep grooves crisscross Gaspra's surface. Galileo team member Joseph Veverka of Cornell University Cornell University, mainly at Ithaca, N.Y.; with land-grant, state, and private support; coeducational; chartered 1865, opened 1868. It was named for Ezra Cornell, who donated $500,000 and a tract of land. With the help of state senator Andrew D. suspects that the scrapes, which are about 10 to 20 meters deep, resulted from impacts with other objects. When considered along with Gaspra's highly irregular shape, the scrapes suggest the asteroid was splintered off from a much larger rock after several violent collisions. NASA NASA: see National Aeronautics and Space Administration. NASA in full National Aeronautics and Space Administration Independent U.S. scientists also confirmed that Gaspra is pitted with several hundred craters, suggesting that the asteroid encounters mostly small objects in its orbital orbital Mathematical expression, called a wave function, that describes properties characteristic of no more than two electrons near an atomic nucleus or molecule. An orbital can be considered a three-dimensional region in which there is a 95% probability of finding an path around the sun. Planetary plan·e·tar·y adj. 1. Of, relating to, or resembling the physical or orbital characteristics of a planet or the planets. 2. a. scientists calculate that the craters accumulated in just 200 million years. And they say they will require more time to decipher Same as decrypt. the story these pictures tell. "There are still lots of things we don't understand," Veverka notes. |
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