951 Gaspra

Gaspra Facts

• 951 Gaspra orbits the Sun near the inner edge of the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter:
  • average distance from the Sun: 205,000,000 km
  • size: 19x12x11 km

• Gaspra was named by its discoverer Neujmin for a resort on the Crimean peninsula. Consequently, many of the asteroid's craters have been named for resorts and spas worldwide.

• Like 243 Ida, Gaspra is an S-type asteroid, believed to be composed of a mixture of rocky and metallic minerals.

• The first of only two asteroids so far observed close-up, Gaspra was encountered Oct 29, 1991 by the Galileo spacecraft on its way to Jupiter (Galileo later visited 243 Ida).

• Gaspra is a member of the Flora family of asteroids.

• Gaspra's surface is covered with impact craters. From the number of small craters on its surface, we can estimate that Gaspra is about 200 million years old.

Pictures

1. (above) Large color image of asteroid 951 Gaspra 172k gif
2. Small scanned image of asteroid Gaspra 8k gif
3. Initial low resolution image of asteroid 951 Gaspra (UU file) (captioned) 47k gif
4. Composite Black and White image, showing much of the landscape of 951 Gaspra 162k gif

5. Montage of 11 images taken by Galileo spacecraft of 951 Gaspra 75k gif

6. Best view of asteroid Gaspra 174k gif
7. Gaspra approach sequence 75k gif
8. Gaspra, taken from Galileo, and Phobos and Deimos taken from Viking 96k gif
9. a 'super-res' computed image from NASA Ames html

Movies

1. Galileo Gaspra animation 41K quicktime; 40K fli
2. Smoothed Gaspra animation 700K quicktime

More about Gaspra

• from LANL
• from NSSDC
• Gaspra Nomenclature Table

Open Issues

• Are Gaspra and Ida typical of S-type asteroids?
• What do C-type and M-type asteroids look like close up?