It needs to be dedicated, working all the time. Dr Atkinson said his three-man team began as sceptics but became more convinced of the need for action as they investigated the threat. Duncan Steel reports on the fragments of the planet that never was. There is another reason to celebrate this January 1. It is the bicentenary of the discovery of the first asteroid.
Astronomers keep a master list of asteroids with well-determined orbits.
As new bodies are added, they get a number, and a name. But the first is 1 Ceres. It was not an unexpected discovery. Late in the 18th century, astronomers had become convinced that there must be another planet, yet to be spotted, between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. Their belief was based on a numerical relationship known as Bode's Law, which seemed to govern the distances from the sun of the planets Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, but with a gap between the fourth and fifth.