- 298 Baptistina
Minor Planet | name=298 Baptistina
discoverer=Auguste Charlois
discovery_date=September 9 ,1890
designations=
category=Main belt
epoch=30 January ,2005 (JD 2453400.5)
semimajor=338.683 Gm (2.264 AU)
perihelion=306.285 Gm (2.047 AU)
aphelion=371.081 Gm (2.481 AU)
eccentricity=0.096
period=1244.205 d (3.41 a)
inclination=6.285°
asc_node=8.346°
arg_peri=134.492°
mean_anomaly=74.903°
speed=19.8 km/s
dimensions= 13 - 30 km
mass="unknown"
density="unknown"
gravity="unknown"
escape_velocity="unknown"
rotation=16.23±0.02 hours
spectral_class= X-type
abs_mag=11.0
albedo="unknown"
temperature="unknown"298 Baptistina is a typical Main belt
asteroid . It was discovered byAuguste Charlois onSeptember 9 ,1890 inNice .Although it has an orbit similar to the
Flora family asteroids, it was found to be an unrelated interloper. [M. Florczak et al "A Visible Spectroscopic Survey of the Flora Clan", Icarus Vol. 133, p. 233 (1998)]A 2007 US-Czech study concluded that 298 Baptistina may be the largest remnant of a 170 km (110 mile) asteroid that was destroyed approximately 160 million years ago in an impact with a smaller body, producing the
Baptistina family of asteroids and that the Baptistina event may have created the eventual impact asteroid believed by many to have caused theCretaceous–Tertiary extinction event approximately 65 million years ago. [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] . This is the K/T impactor believed to be shown in the geological record. [" [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6980468.stm Space pile-up 'condemned dinos'] ". Sept. 5, 2007.]The asteroid has a rotational period of 16.23±0.02 hours.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", JRASC, submitted.]
References
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