* Astronomy

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RE: Asteroid (93) Minerva

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Asteroid (93) Minerva near HD 82670 in the constellation Leo.

Magnitude: 13.4

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Asteroid (93) Minerva makes its closest approach to the Earth (2.046 AU) on the 17th November 2014

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Asteroid (93) Minerva is at Opposition in constellation the Capricornus on the 7th August, 2013.

Magnitude: 10.9
Distance to Earth: 1.419 AU
Distance to Sun center: 2.422 AU

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Asteroid (93) Minerva is at Opposition on the 21st March, 2012.

Magnitude: 11.3
Distance to Earth:1.758 AU
Distance to Sun: 2.754 AU

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The Secrets of Asteroid Minerva and its Two Moons

Since the discovery of its two moons, the triple asteroid Minerva has been the focus of space and ground-based telescope studies that have attempted to unravel the secrets of this intriguing system. A multiple-telescope campaign has now revealed that Minerva is unusually round for an asteroid, and has a possibly unique structure.
The campaign to "weigh" the asteroid and derive its density and other characteristics was undertaken by an international team of planetary astronomers led by Franck Marchis, researcher at the Carl Sagan Center of the SETI Institute. Marchis will report on their findings at the EPSC-DPS Joint Meeting 2011 in Nantes, France.
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Asteroid (93) Minerva is a large trinary main-belt asteroid. It is a C-type asteroid, meaning that it has a dark surface and possibly a primitive carbonaceous composition. It was discovered by J. C. Watson on August 24, 1867, and named after Minerva, the Roman equivalent of Athena, goddess of wisdom. An occultation of a star by Minerva was observed in France, Spain and the United States on November 22, 1982. An occultation diameter of ~170 km was measured from the observations. Since then two more occultations have been observed, which give an estimated mean diameter of ~150 km for diameter
On August 16, 2009, at 13:36 UT, the Keck Observatory's adaptive optics system revealed that the asteroid 93 Minerva possesses 2 tiny km-sized moons.
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