The Pallas asteroid (2)
The Pallas asteroid (2)
Pallas is the second largest body in the asteroid belt, with an average diameter of around 510 kilometres. With reflectance spectra matching those of CR chondrites (see Renazzo meteorite image), Pallas is a candidate for the parent body of these water-bearing meteorites. High-resolution images of the northern (left) and southern (right) hemispheres of Pallas were taken by the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile in 2020. Two large impact basins may have been formed by collisions with families of other asteroids. The bright spot in the southern hemisphere (right) is reminiscent of the salt deposits on the water-rich dwarf planet Ceres.
Credit:
ESO/M. Marsset et al./MISTRAL-Algorithmus (ONERA/CNRS)