To find The asteroid Pallas, locate the bright star, Arcturus, in the constellation Bootes (Find Ursa Major, then follow the sweep of the Big Dipper's handle down to the star), then star-hop up and across to the faint, but distinctive, constellation Corona Borealis.
This week, the huge asteroid Pallas reaches opposition, being opposite to the sun in Earth's sky, making it a prime target for avid skywatchers with telescopes. To spot Pallas tonight, look for the brightest star, called either Alphecca or Gemma, in Corona Borealis. Pallas is an 8th magnitude object just south of this star. Read more
The magnitude 8.7 asteroid (2) Pallas will occult a magnitude 11.6 star in the constellation Serpens, at 20:39 UT, 9th April, 2010. The 33.1 second event is visible from India, Russia, and Europe.
Position (2000): RA 15 50 56.6885, Dec +19 06 00.285
The magnitude 8.7 asteroid (2) Pallas will occult the magnitude 9.3 star HD 142226 in the constellation Serpens, at 04:24 UT, 4th April, 2010. The 32.6 second event is only visible from the Pacific Ocean.
Position (2000): RA 15 52 52.3195, Dec +17 33 26.027
The Hubble telescope has provided new insight on 2 Pallas, one of the largest asteroids in the Solar System. The nearly 600km-wide rock is an example of an object that started out on the process of becoming a planet but never grew up into the real thing. Researchers have published a 3D model of the grapefruit-shaped mini-world in Science magazine.
Britney E. Schmidt, a UCLA doctoral student in the department of Earth and space sciences, wasn't sure what she'd glean from images of the asteroid Pallas taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. But she hoped to settle at least one burning question: Was Pallas, the second-largest asteroid, actually in that grey area between an asteroid and a small planet? The answer, she found, was yes. Pallas, like its sister asteroids Ceres and Vesta, was that rare thing: an intact protoplanet.