Say Hello To The Golf Ball Asteroid

Credit: ESO/Vernazza et al.

When it comes to asteroids, Pallas is a pretty impressive one. It was the second asteroid discovered and is the third largest overall, behind only Ceres and Vesta. You would think we'd have gotten a decent picture of the thing before now, but Pallas has a very inclined and eccentric orbit, making it an extremely difficult task to shoot a space probe at it. So difficult that the first detailed images of the asteroid had to be taken from Earth.

In the research, published in Nature Astronomy, the scientists who took the images called Pallas the "golf ball asteroid," because the surface is so cratered it does bear a noticeable resemblance to a golf ball. And that made me curious about something: If someone wanted to use Pallas as a golf ball, how tall would they have to be? It's time for a bit of math.

A golf ball is 1.68 inches in diameter, and I'm 75 inches tall. Pallas is 339 miles in diameter, so in order for the scale to be the same, our interplanetary golfer would have to be 15,133 miles high. That's almost twice the diameter of the Earth. No wonder Pallas has such a strange orbit, someone must have hit one crazy slice.

Beer of the Week

The beer: Guinness Blonde

Brewed by: Guinness Open Gate Brewery, Baltimore, Maryland

Description (from the website): "Irish tradition meets American spirit in Guinness Blonde. Complex and flavorful. Light, floral and alive with citrus. This beer is perfectly balanced with a lingering malt and biscuity finish. ... When we opened up our new brewery in Baltimore in August of 2018, our goal was to combine 260+ years of Guinness brewing experience with American beer creativity. The first item on their list was to re-interpret our flagship American beer, Guinness Blonde. Their goal was a sessionable golden beer with Guinness character. Focusing on making it more refreshing in taste and lighter in color, they supplemented the Mosaic hops with Citra for tasty citrus notes and adjusted the grain bill. The result is a clean, crisp beer that hits the sweet spot between flavor and refreshing taste."

Would I buy it again?: Yes, I would. This is a great summer beer, tasty and drinkable. Not too hoppy either. It's slightly unfortunate that I was introduced to it in the middle of winter, so I won't be in a huge hurry to buy more, but come June or so, I'd definitely buy this again.