Baptistina Asteroids
The Baptistina family (FIN: 403) is an asteroid family of more than 2500 members that was probably produced by the breakup of an asteroid across 80 million years ago following an impact with a smaller body. The two largest presumed remnants of the parent asteroid are main-belt asteroids 298 Baptistina and 1696 Nurmela. The Baptistina family is part of the larger Flora clan. It was briefly speculated that the Chicxulub impactor was part of the Baptistina family of asteroids, but this was disproven in 2011 using data from the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE). The Baptistina family consists of darkly colored asteroids and meteoroids in similar orbits. Baptistina broke up into thousands of fragments about 80 million years ago. Members 298 Baptistina is the namesake asteroid and largest presumed remnant of the Baptistina family. It was discovered on 9 September 1890 by Auguste Charlois at the Nice Observatory. The source of its name is unknown. It measures about in di ...
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