951 Gaspra

Asteroid

The first asteroid ever seen up close, imaged by the Galileo spacecraft during its 1991 flyby on the way to Jupiter.

Facts

TypeAsteroid
Distance from the Sun2.21 AU
Diameter12 km
Mass2.50 × 10^15 kg
Temperature-83°C
Orbital period1,200 days
Apparent magnitude12.4
Redshift0
Discovered1916

951 Gaspra in context

At 12 km across, 951 Gaspra is less than a thousandth of the diameter of Earth.

Its mass is less than a thousandth of the mass of Earth.

It keeps an average distance of 2.21 AU from the Sun, so sunlight takes 18 minutes to reach it.

A single orbit takes 3.3 years.

An average temperature of 190 K works out at -83 degrees Celsius, colder than the 15 degrees Earth averages.

It has been on record since 1916.

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