By
Richard Clark
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Eros asteroid second-largest near-earth object ever discovered
A University of Arizona professor is expanding his work space - literally.
William Boynton, a University of Arizona planetary sciences professor, was a team leader for the Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous project and co-authored the results of a study published today in the journal Science.
The studied object, Eros, is one of the most common types of asteroids.
"What we found is this object, which astronomically is relatively small, is very similar to the building blocks for planets," Boyton said.
Eros was determined to be a chondrite, a type of asteroid that is believed to have been significant in the formation of the solid planets in the solar system, Boynton said.
A primitive asteroid allows planetary scientists to study the materials that likely created the Earth.
The asteroid Eros was named for its Feb. 14 rendezvous date with the satellite.
While the asteroid's type is common, the results will still be very useful, said Jessie Bhangoo, a team member of the project.
"It's unfortunate that Eros was a fairly common type of asteroid, it is still possible that we could get significant results by the end of the mission," Bhangoo said.
Eros is the second-largest near-earth object ever discovered. It has a diameter of more than five miles and a radius of almost 31 miles.
The satellite orbiting Eros will start sending back data on Feb. 14, 2000.
It is expected to continue to report until its mission ends in Feb. 2001 by lowering its orbit and taking up-close pictures of the asteroid until it impacts the surface.
It was initially launched into orbit on a Delta II rocket in 1996.
The NEAR project is the first time a man-made satellite has orbited an asteroid.
It also marks the first time a satellite has been able to travel past Mars' orbit on solar power.
The results are published in the journal Science.
