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The largest asteroids with an accurately measured mass, because they have been studied by the probe Dawn, are 1 Ceres with a mass of (939.3 ± 0.5) × 10 18 kg, and 4 Vesta at (259.076 ± 0.001) × 10 18 kg. The third-largest asteroid with an accurately measured mass, because it has moons, is 87 Sylvia at (14.76 ± 0.06) × 10 18 kg.
Large main belt asteroid 4 Vesta. The asteroids are not pristine samples of the primordial Solar System. They have undergone considerable evolution since their formation, including internal heating (in the first few tens of millions of years), surface melting from impacts, space weathering from radiation, and bombardment by micrometeorites.
10 Hygiea is a major asteroid located in the main asteroid belt.With a mean diameter of between 425 and 440 km and a mass estimated to be 3% of the total mass of the belt, [11] it is the fourth-largest asteroid in the Solar System by both volume and mass, and is the largest of the C-type asteroids (dark asteroids with a carbonaceous surface) in classifications that use G type for 1 Ceres.
This list includes few examples since there are about 589 asteroids in the asteroid belt with a measured radius between 20 and 49 km. [176] Many thousands of objects of this size range have yet to be discovered in the trans-Neptunian region.
Main Asteroid belt (main belt), between Mars and Jupiter, in near circular orbit, 2.2 to 3.2 AU Hungaria asteroids, small group, 1.78 to 2.00 AU; Alinda asteroids, small group, 2.5 AU in elliptical orbits; Hilda asteroid small group just inside Jupiter, 4.0 AU; Kuiper belt large belt, 43 to 64.5 AU; Scattered disc small group, 21.5 to 215 AU
The dwarf planet Ceres is by far the largest asteroid, with a diameter of 940 km (580 mi). The next largest are 4 Vesta and 2 Pallas, both with diameters of just over 500 km (300 mi). Vesta is the brightest of the four main-belt asteroids that can, on occasion, be visible to the naked eye. [70]
The mass of 4 Vesta (blue) compared to other large asteroids: 1 Ceres, 2 Pallas, 10 Hygiea, 704 Interamnia, 15 Eunomia and the remainder of the Main Belt. The unit of mass is × 10 18 kg. Other objects in the Solar system with well-defined masses within a factor of 2 of Vesta's mass are Varda , Gǃkúnǁʼhòmdímà , and Salacia (245, 136, and ...
The largest object in the asteroid belt, the dwarf planet Ceres, is an icy body that measures 592 miles across. About 25% of its mass, NASA estimates , is made up of water.