Asteroid Juno
3 Juno, the third asteroid to be discovered, was first observed by Astronomer Karl Ludwig Harding, on September 1, 1804.[1]
Though it was the third to be discovered, Juno is the tenth most massive asteroid.[2] Its diameter is 234 kilometres (145 mi).[3]
Juno takes 1590 days to orbit Sol, our sun.[4]
In 2003 Astronomers reported on using adaptive optics when observing Juno, and confirming it was not spherical.[5] They believe they were able to discern it bore a recent impact crater.
References
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Anton Petrov (2025-05-31). "Holy Cow, Someone Named a Minor Planet After Me! But Why?". What da Math. Retrieved 2026-06-19 – via YouTube.
My name is Anton and in this video, we will talk about 660391 Antonpetrov and why this even happened
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"Asteroid Juno Grabs the Spotlight". NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. 2009-09-16. Retrieved 2026-06-19.
Though pockmarked by bang-ups with other asteroids, Juno is large; in fact, it is the tenth largest asteroid. It measures about 234 kilometers (145 miles) in diameter, or about one-fifteenth the diameter of the moon.
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"Asteroid Juno has a "bite" out of it". SpaceNews. 2003-08-06. Retrieved 2026-06-19.
Juno, the third asteroid ever discovered, was first spotted by astronomers early in the 19th century. It orbits the Sun with thousands of other bits of space rock in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. One of the largest asteroids, at a size of 150 miles across, Juno essentially is a leftover building block of the solar system.
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"Asteroid Juno: Space Reference". Space Reference. Archived from the original on 2026-02-13. Retrieved 2026-06-19.
Juno orbits the sun every 1,590 days (4.35 years), coming as close as 1.99 AU and reaching as far as 3.35 AU from the sun. Juno is about 246.6 kilometers in diameter, making it larger than 99% of asteroids, comparable in size to the U.S. state of Maryland.
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"Asteroid Juno has a "bite" out of it". Space News. 2003-08-03. Retrieved 2026-07-10.
Their surface maps showed that Juno, like other asteroids, is misshapen rather than round, and that it has “sharp” edges. Even better, as Juno tumbled through space during the night of observing, a “bite” came into view – an area that appeared dark as seen at near-infrared wavelengths. The astronomers concluded that the asteroid had recently (in astronomical terms) collided with another object, resulting in a 60-mile-wide crater, or possibly a smaller crater that is surrounded by a 60-mile blanket of ejecta debris.