{"id":44682,"date":"2023-05-17T14:50:48","date_gmt":"2023-05-17T14:50:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/?post_type=purple_issue&#038;p=44682"},"modified":"2023-05-30T12:14:29","modified_gmt":"2023-05-30T12:14:29","slug":"comets-and-asteroids-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/2023\/05\/17\/comets-and-asteroids-19\/","title":{"rendered":"Comets and asteroids"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center sans-serif intro\">Track 20 Massalia, the heftiest member of an inner-belt family of asteroids, as it reaches opposition <\/p>\n\n<div class=\"no-tts wp-block-image article-in-image bild\"><figure class=\"no-tts aligncenter size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"730\" src=\"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2023\/05\/5-1024x730.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"no-tts wp-image-45036\" srcset=\"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2023\/05\/5-1024x730.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2023\/05\/5-300x214.jpg 300w, https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2023\/05\/5-768x548.jpg 768w, https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2023\/05\/5.jpg 1252w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption>20 Massalia\u2019s path, passing near the Lagoon and Trifid Nebulae <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n<p class=\"article-full-body sans-serif\">Minor planet 20 Massalia reaches opposition on 16 June, when it will be in the southeast corner of Ophiuchus, northwest of the distinctive Teapot asterism in Sagittarius. At the start of June, it\u2019s positioned 2.5\u00b0 west of the beautiful Trifid Nebula, M20. The Trifid shines with an integrated magnitude of +6.3, although at 28 arcminutes across its surface brightness is significantly lower. The Trifid lies 1.5\u00b0 north and slightly west of the much brighter Lagoon Nebula, M8. If you fancy recording the passage of 20 Massalia this month, including this pair of iconic nebulae will make for an impressive record of its journey. Incidentally, if you\u2019re reading this in time, at 01:00 BST (00:00 UT) on 20 May, shining at mag. +10.7, Massalia is located 0.4\u00b0 north of M20. <\/p>\n\n<p class=\"article-full-body sans-serif\">Massalia tracks west throughout the month, crossing the border into Ophiuchus on 10 June. It starts at mag. +10.5, brightening slightly to +10.0 at opposition when it will be located 0.7\u00b0 east-southeast of mag. +6.5 52 Ophiuchi. At 01:00 BST (00:00 UT) on 30 June, 20 Massalia will be 1.3\u00b0 southeast of mag. +4.4 Xi (\u03be) Ophiuchi. <\/p>\n\n<p class=\"article-full-body sans-serif\">Massalia\u2019s orbit keeps it within the inner part of the main asteroid belt. It\u2019s the parent of a large collection of asteroids known as the Massalia family, a group with 6,000+ members. Massalia is a large S-type or stony asteroid with a mean <span>diameter of 145km. Its orbital period is three years, nine months and its mean distance from the Sun is 2.41 AU (361,000,000km). Its orbit takes it out as far as 2.75 AU and in as close as 2.07 AU. It is believed to be nearly spherical in shape, having triaxial ellipsoidal dimensions of 160 x 145 x 132km. It is suspected to have large, flat surface regions and rotates once every 8.1 hours.<\/span><\/p>\n\n<p class=\"footer\">CHART: PETE LAWRENCE<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>20 Massalia, the heftiest member of an inner-belt family of asteroids, reaches opposition <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":44681,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ub_ctt_via":"","purple_page_number":"53","purple_custom_meta_purple_page_number":"53","purple_seq_number":"1","purple_custom_meta_purple_seq_number":"1","purple_source_article":"article_53-1.xml","purple_custom_meta_purple_source_article":"article_53-1.xml","purple_source_issue":"June-2023","purple_custom_meta_purple_source_issue":"June-2023","purple_external_id":"June-2023-53-1","purple_custom_meta_purple_external_id":"June-2023-53-1","purple_issue_code":"|0000086565||","purple_custom_meta_purple_issue_code":"|0000086565||","purple_android_product":"com.im.skyatnight.217","purple_custom_meta_purple_android_product":"com.im.skyatnight.217","purple_ios_product":"com.im.skyatnight.217","purple_custom_meta_purple_ios_product":"com.im.skyatnight.217","purple_web_product":"","purple_custom_meta_purple_web_product":"","purple_publication_id":"075fab74-0a21-4201-866a-899d6c41c40c","purple_migrated":"","kt_blocks_editor_width":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[14],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2023\/05\/a638316f-32f5-415c-ab08-4275e15b0227.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"2","apple_news_title":""},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2023\/05\/a638316f-32f5-415c-ab08-4275e15b0227.jpg",1223,876,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2023\/05\/a638316f-32f5-415c-ab08-4275e15b0227-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2023\/05\/a638316f-32f5-415c-ab08-4275e15b0227-300x215.jpg",300,215,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2023\/05\/a638316f-32f5-415c-ab08-4275e15b0227-768x550.jpg",768,550,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2023\/05\/a638316f-32f5-415c-ab08-4275e15b0227-1024x733.jpg",800,573,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2023\/05\/a638316f-32f5-415c-ab08-4275e15b0227.jpg",1223,876,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2023\/05\/a638316f-32f5-415c-ab08-4275e15b0227.jpg",1223,876,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"20 Massalia, the heftiest member of an inner-belt family of asteroids, reaches opposition","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44682"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44682"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44682\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45332,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44682\/revisions\/45332"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}