It was the second asteroid ever to be discovered and
not surprisingly it is also the second largest asteroid after .
It was found in 1802 by a German astronomer and physician Wilhelm Olbers
only one year after Ceres was discovered and is named after Pallas, the
Greek Goddess of 
Wisdom. It is 490 kilometres (304 miles) in width. It's orbit carries it over a distance of over 414,390,000 kilometres around the sun and lasts over four and a half years. Pallas is also part of the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. It is so big that it is thought that it has it's own gravity so that it is spherical in shape, like a ball. Scientists have discovered that Pallas contains water as part of the material that makes it up (the water isn't as a liquid or as ice) but it is a very hard asteroid made of mostly carbon and magnesium. |