Thursday, August 8, 2013
The three brightest asteroids
In the next few weeks will have to the perfect opportunity to chance the three brightest asteroids in the sky in the middle of stargazing. These cosmic objects are small in size, but quite bright. Not many amateur astronomers could see them move across the sky. But in the next few weeks, all of us will have the great opportunity to see a flight of three asteroids - Flora, Juno and Iris in the night sky.
These asteroids were among the first asteroid ever discovered. Juno, discovered in 1804, was the third of the first discovered asteroids. It was discovered shortly after the discovery of Ceres - the largest asteroid in 1801 and the opening of Pallas in 1802.
Asteroid Juno was discovered by German astronomer Karl Ludwig Harding and named in honor of Juno, the highest of the Roman goddesses. Asteroid Iris, was named after the Greek goddess of the rainbow, and Flora in honor of the Roman goddess of plants and flowers.
Juno is the largest of them, the size is 233 kilometers in diameter, and the smallest Flora, size 128 kilometers, the average size has Iris, the size of about 200 kilometers in diameter.
At present, the asteroid Juno, located in the western part of the constellation of Aquarius, the strength of its glow on the gray scale at the moment is 8.6. He is too small to see it with the naked eye, but it can be easily seen with binoculars or a small telescope. Iris is now located in the center of this constellation and has a brightness of 7.6 One unit, making it the brightest object of the trio. Flora is located in the constellation of Sagittarius, and its brightness, like Flora is 8.6.
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