298 Baptistina

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298 Baptistina
Discovery A
Discoverer Auguste Charlois
Discovery date September 9, 1890
Alternate
designations B
Category Main belt
Orbital elements C
Epoch 30 January 2005 (JD 2453400.5)
Eccentricity (e) 0.096
Semi-major axis (a) 338.683 Gm (2.264 AU)
Perihelion (q) 306.285 Gm (2.047 AU)
Aphelion (Q) 371.081 Gm (2.481 AU)
Orbital period (P) 1244.205 d (3.41 a)
Mean orbital speed 19.8 km/s
Inclination (i) 6.285°
Longitude of the
ascending node (Ω)		 8.346°
Argument of
perihelion (ω)		 134.492°
Mean anomaly (M) 74.903°
Physical characteristics D
Dimensions 13 - 30 km
Mass unknown
Density unknown
Surface gravity unknown
Escape velocity unknown
Rotation period unknown
Spectral class X-type
Absolute magnitude 11.0
Albedo (geometric) unknown
Mean surface
temperature		 unknown
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298 Baptistina is a typical Main belt asteroid. It was discovered by Auguste Charlois on September 9, 1890 in Nice.

Although it has an orbit similar to the Flora family asteroids, it was found to be an unrelated interloper.[1]

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 the Cretaceous–Tertiary extinction event approximately 65 million years ago.[2]. This is the K/T impactor believed to be shown in the geological record. [3] This theory has not, as yet, found general acceptance among the scientific community.

[edit] References

  1. ^ M. Florczak et al A Visible Spectroscopic Survey of the Flora Clan, Icarus Vol. 133, p. 233 (1998)
  2. ^ 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
  3. ^ "Space pile-up 'condemned dinos'". Sept. 5, 2007.
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