August 18, 2023
This morning at 5 am, the Moon passed approximately 1° north of the asteroid Pallas. Pallas was discovered in 1802. It was only the second asteroid to be discovered, after Ceres. At the time of its discovery Pallas was considered a planet, and it wasn’t until the 1950s that it was reclassified as an asteroid.
High-res images of the northern (left) and southern (right) hemispheres of the asteroid Pallas. Image credit: ESO/M. Marsset et al./MISTRAL algorithm (ONERA/CNRS)