Tianjin, March 2 (Xinhua) -- The third asteroid discovered by mankind, Marriage God, will oppose the sun in the early morning of March 4. Astronomical science experts said that if the weather is fine, interested astronomy enthusiasts can try to observe it with binoculars or small astronomical telescopes on the evening of the 3rd. After more than 10 days, he could still be found.
In addition to the sun, planets, and dwarf planets, the solar system also has numerous small celestial bodies, including asteroids, comets, meteoroids, etc. An asteroid is a large group of small celestial bodies that orbit the Sun. Research measurements have shown that many asteroids are very irregular in shape, usually rotating around in less than 12 hours; Some asteroids also have their own moons.
Liu Dongyu, director of the Tianjin Science Writers Association and member of the Beijing Astronomical Society, said that modern astronomical observations have confirmed that there are about 500,000 asteroids in a region between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, which are generally invisible to the naked eye.
Marriage Star, also known as Asteroid 3, was discovered by German astronomer Carl Harding via a telescope on September 1, 1804. The god of marriage is named Juno (pronounced "Juno"), the "goddess of midwifery" in ancient Roman mythology, and was later extended to "the guardian of marriage". In the 30s of the 20th century, Chinese astronomer Chen Zunfei named it as the Marriage God Star, and it has been used to this day.
Liu Dongyu said that at the time of the discovery of the wedding star, the Western astronomical community continued the tradition of naming asteroids after female gods in ancient Greek mythology or ancient Roman mythology. Nowadays, asteroid naming has more complete and rich rules. According to incomplete statistics, among the more than 600,000 asteroids with fixed numbers that have been discovered by mankind, there are more than 600 asteroids named after Chinese elements, such as "Yuan Longping Star (Asteroid No. 8117)", "Tianjin University Star (Asteroid No. 8917)", "Purple Mountain Star (Asteroid No. 3494)" and so on.
For the general public, opposition is a great time to observe asteroids. At opposition, the asteroid is located on the Sun-Earth line and is on the same side as the Earth, "rising and setting" with the Sun, and can be observed almost all night.
During this opposition, the star of marriage will shine at 87, invisible to the naked eye, interested astronomy enthusiasts can choose the suburbs with dark skies, with the help of star map software, use binoculars or small astronomical telescopes to find its trace in the constellation Leo.
Due to the small size, the brightness is not high, and it is relatively far away from the earth, even if you use a telescope to observe, you can only see a small bright spot, and it takes a certain amount of patience and skill to distinguish it. Liu Dongyu reminded. (ENDS).