SPACE — Gaspra was the first asteroid visited by a spacecraft. Gaspra orbits near the inner edge of the asteroid belt.
The Galileo spacecraft had been traveling through the asteroid belt for about two months before reaching Gaspra. Galileo was 990 miles away from Gaspra when it passed at a relative speed of about 5 miles per second.
That happened on October 29, 1991. Of course, Gaspra was not Galileo’s destination. The craft is on a long journey to the gas giant, Jupiter.
The spacecraft took several photos of the asteroid and used an instrument called the Near Infrared Mapping Spectrometer to study Gaspra’s chemical composition and other physical properties. Galileo determined that Gaspra had an irregular shape and was about 12 miles long and 7 miles wide.
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The image reveals that Gaspra is also covered in craters. Galileo’s position was too far away for Gaspra’s gravity to affect him. Galileo also could not determine the mass of the asteroid. Source: Space.com
2023-10-29 15:23:00
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