Site map . 07.27.99 Travelling at 35,000 mph, the craft known as Deep Space 1 is expected to zoom within 9 miles of an asteroid tomorrow, the closest pass of a celestial body ever made by a human craft without landing on the object. First, though, Deep Space 1 has to find the asteroid. The target, a tiny rock whose precise size and location are not known, was recently named 9969 Braille, after Louis Braille, inventor of the system that allows the blind to read. Astronomer Eleanor Helin, lead discoverer of the asteroid formerly known as 1992 KD, selected Braille from hundreds of suggestions submitted to The Planetary Society in a worldwide naming contest.
Braille is a tiny target wandering around the Sun in the neighborhood of Earth and Mars .
The asteroid's size and shape aren't well known, but it is probably about a mile wide, says Marc Rayman, deputy mission manager and chief engineer for Deep Space 1. The craft, launched last October and now about 115 million miles away, is using an automatic navigation system to hunt for Braille. In fact, the asteroid is so small that it has been difficult for astronomers to determine its exact location, and it is still too far away for the spacecraft to see it. Infrared measurements will be used to study minerals on the surface. Researchers may also be able to determine if Braille has a magnetic field.