2 Pallas facts for kids
2 Pallas is the second asteroid discovered in the solar system. It was discovered by Heinrich Wilhelm Matthäus Olbers on March 28, 1802. 2 Pallas is named after Pallas Athena, an alternate name for the goddess Athena.
2 Pallas has a mass estimated to be 7% of the total mass of the asteroid belt. The asteroid is the third largest asteroid in terms of mass and the second largest in terms of diameter.
Images for kids
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High-resolution images of the north (at left) and south (at right) hemispheres of Pallas, made possible by the Adaptive-Optics (AO)-fed SPHERE imager on the Very Large Telescope (VLT) in 2020. Two large impact basins could have been created by asteroid family–forming impacts. The bright spot in the southern hemisphere is reminiscent of the salt deposits on Ceres.
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Pallas has a high eccentricity and a highly inclined orbit
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Relative sizes of the four largest asteroids. Pallas is second from right.
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False-color image of Pallas
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Lightcurve model of Pallas
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Objects considered for dwarf planet status under the IAU's 2006 draft proposal on the definition of a planet. Pallas is second from the right, bottom row.
