July 23 – Discovery of Asteroid 114 Kassandra (1871)

Asteroid 114 Kassandra was discovered by prolific asteroid hunter Christian Heinrich Friedrich Peters on July 23^rd 1871. It is in the main belt, is about 100km in diameter, and is of spectral type “T”. We don’t get many T-types in these pages, mainly because you don’t get many T-types anywhere. They tend to orbit in the inner main belt, and are thought to be related to P-types, but as we don’t have any convenient examples to study, very little is known about them.

Woodcut showing Cassandra predicting the fall of Troy and her own death.

Kassandra is named after the tragic Greek prophetess of the same name but with a “C”, cursed by her spurned would-be lover Apollo to be able to foretell the future but never be believed.

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ALSO TODAY . . . .
1995 – Today in 1995 saw the discovery of Comet Hale-Bopp by Alan Hale (New Mexico) and Thomas Bopping (Arizona). “C/1995 01” was one of the brightest comets of the 20th century, visible with the naked eye for over eighteen months around its perihelion at April 1st 1997. It became the most observed comet in history, largely due to the increase in Internet availability happening at the time, and NASA’s Hale-Bopp Web page was their first to receive over a million hits in one day. How much scrutiny Hale-Bopp receives next time around is anyone’s guess. Perihelion is expected in around 4385 AD, by which time I expect Richard Branson’s descendants to be offering cut-price round trips through the tail (with a free night on Mars if you book early).
1999 – Launch of the CHANDRA spacecraft.

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