clhs sciblog

Here is a digital model of Pallas' crater and two views of the crater from the pictures taken by the Hubble Space Telescope.

Between the orbits of Jupiter and Mars lies an asteroid belt. In it, they found a protoplanet that is about the same size as Arizona, called Pallas. A team of scientists from colleges all around the US was led by Britney E. Schmidt from ULCA to analyze the photos taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. “We wanted to learn about Pallas itself — what its shape is like, what its surface is like, does it have large impact craters, does it have significant topography,” Schmidt said about their goals.  After determining the size of Pallas and some key characteristics about the celestial body, they determined that it was a protoplanet, or something in between an asteroid and a planet. Because the shape is round and the color is varied, it makes it less of an asteroid, and more like a planet.  They also found a large crater on the side of the Pallas, and attribute some orbiting asteroids to the effects of the creation of the crater. Read more here.
These scientists are very excited about this discovery, because they hope that it will help them learn more about the creation of the solar system. Pallas is very important because it is still very intact, much unlike other asteroids and protoplanets its size. They also discovered that it wasn’t made out of hydrated silicate and ice, like they had originally thought. Through looking at Pallas, they are convinced they can piece together more of the puzzle surrounding the creation of the universe. It won’t, of course, but it is cool that they can learn that much about a protoplanet from pictures.

Q1-3