298 Baptistina
298 Baptistina is a common Main belt asteroid. It was found by Auguste Charlois on September 9, 1890 in Nice.
 | |
| Discovery | |
|---|---|
| Discovered by | Auguste Charlois |
| Discovery date | September 9, 1890 |
| Orbital characteristics | |
| Epoch 30 January, 2005 (JD 2453400.5) | |
| Aphelion | 371.081 Gm (2.481 AU) |
| Perihelion | 306.285 Gm (2.047 AU) |
| 338.683 Gm (2.264 AU) | |
| Eccentricity | 0.096 |
| 1244.205 d (3.41 a) | |
| 74.903° | |
| Inclination | 6.285° |
| 8.346° | |
| 134.492° | |
| Physical characteristics | |
| Dimensions | 13 - 30 km |
| Mass | unknown |
Mean density | unknown |
| unknown | |
| unknown | |
| Albedo | unknown |
Although it has an orbit similar to the Flora family asteroids, it was found to be an unrelated asteroid.[1]
A 2007 US-Czech study decided that 298 Baptistina may be the biggest remnant of a 170 km (110 mile) asteroid that was destroyed about 160 million years ago in an impact with a smaller body, making 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 about 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.
References
- ↑ M. Florczak et al. A Visible Spectroscopic Survey of the Flora Clan, Icarus Vol. 133, p. 233 (1998)
- ↑ 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
- ↑ "Space pile-up 'condemned dinos'". Sept. 5, 2007.