Asteroids are a group of small celestial bodies that drift in our solar system while
orbiting the sun. Several hundred thousands of asteroids have been discovered so far and thousands of more are being discovered
each year. The word asreroid comes from the Greek language meaning star-like.
Asteroids revolve
around the sun in elliptical orbits, but their rbits can change due to collisions. They were first studied in the 1800's by
atronomer William Herschel by telescope. Numerous amounts of our information on asteriods have been discovered through telescopes.
The gound-based telescopes help us see whether an asteroid is ever headed towards earth.
Also, asteroids have been classified
into different types due to their spectra and albedo. This different types of ateroids include:
C-Type- extremely dark, similar to carbonaceous
chondrite meteoritesm, 75% of asteroids are C-type
S-Type- metallic nickel-iron mixed with
iron- and magnesium-silicates, 17% of asteroids are S-type
M-Type- bright, pure nickel-iron, 7% of
asteriods are M-type
