While tracking an ‘exceptional’ asteroid is pretty easy these days making a guess on their size is not due to their irregular shapes and motion. So while this list might be well off the mark, its still a pretty good estimate on the largest, esspecialy when it comes to geometric mean…
The Top 10 Largest Exceptional Asteroids Located Within Our Solar System
10 – Eunomia – Diameter: 268
Discovered by Italian astronomer Annibale de Gasparis on July 29th, 1851 it was named after Eunomia, one of the Horae, a personification of order and law in old Greek mythology.
9 – Cybele – Diameter: 273
Located in the outer sections of the asteroid belt it is an X-type asteroid, meaning that it is dark in colour and carbonaceous in composition.
8 – Sylvia – Diameter: 286
Located beyond the core of the asteroid belt it is a member of the Cybele group and is also known to have more than one moon body orbiting it.
7 – Davida – Diameter: 289
Discovered by R.S.Dugan in 1903 it was one of ten large asteroids he found. Its named after an astronomy professor at Amherst College called “David Peck Todd”
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6 – Europa – Diameter: 315
This ‘triaxial ellipsoid’ was discovered by Hermann Goldschmidt from his balcony in Paris. It was named after Europa, one of Zeus’s conquests.
5 – Interamnia – Diameter: 326
Located close to the sun it was discovered on the 2nd of October by Vincenzo Cerulli. It was named after the Latin name for Teramo, Italy, where Vincenzo Cerulli worked at the time.
4 – Hygiea – Diameter: 431±7
Located within the asteroid belt (like most on this list are) it is an oblong asteroid that is a class of dark C-type asteroids with a carbonaceous surface. Astronomers also note that it’s a dim asteroid and doesn’t show up very well at all despite its exceptional size.
3 – Pallas – Diameter: 512±3
Pallas is thought to be a remnant protoplanet ( a large planetary embryo that originated within a protoplanetary disc). It was once considered a possible dwarf planet because of its size, but its shape revealed otherwise.
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2 – Vesta – Diameter: 525.4±0.2 km
Located within the asteroid belt this large space object was discovered by the German astronomer Heinrich Wilhelm Olbers on the 29th of March 1807 and it was named after Vesta, the virgin goddess of home and hearth
1 – Ceres – Diameter: 946±2 km
Said to be the largest object so far found within our solar system it lies between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter and is said to be mostly made of rock and ice.