Who discovered asteroid 253 Mathilde and when?
Q: Who discovered asteroid 253 Mathilde and when?
A: Johann Palisa discovered asteroid 253 Mathilde in 1885.
Q: What is the orbit of asteroid 253 Mathilde like?
A: The orbit of asteroid 253 Mathilde is fairly elliptical and takes more than four years to circle the Sun.
Q: What is the rate of rotation of asteroid 253 Mathilde?
A: The rate of rotation of asteroid 253 Mathilde is unusually slow, taking 17.4 days to complete a 360° revolution about its axis.
Q: What type of asteroid is asteroid 253 Mathilde?
A: Asteroid 253 Mathilde is a primitive C-type asteroid, which means the surface has lots of carbon, giving it a dark surface that reflects only 4% of the light that falls on it.
Q: Which spacecraft visited asteroid 253 Mathilde and when?
A: The NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft visited asteroid 253 Mathilde during June 1997, on its way to asteroid 433 Eros.
Q: What did the NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft discover during its visit to asteroid 253 Mathilde?
A: The NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft took pictures of one side of asteroid 253 Mathilde and found many big craters that have gouged out depressions in the surface.
Q: What is the significance of asteroid 253 Mathilde in terms of space exploration?
A: Asteroid 253 Mathilde is currently the biggest asteroid to be visited by a spacecraft and the first C-type asteroid to be so explored.
