Key facts
- Category
- Asteroids
- Object class
- Q-type Mars-crossing asteroid
- Scale fact
- 2.1 kmmaximum extent
- Composition
- Olivine and pyroxene (stony)
9969 Braille
2.1 kmmaximum extent
Explore 9969 Braille to scaleDetails
Braille is a small Mars-crossing asteroid visited by NASA’s Deep Space 1 in 1999. The spacecraft passed only about 26 kilometers away, but a navigation problem left its few images out of focus and prevented the close view the flyby geometry promised.
Deep Space 1 was built to demonstrate technologies including ion propulsion and autonomous navigation; Braille was a bonus science target. An onboard computer crash and failure to lock onto the darker-than-expected asteroid compromised the encounter. Other instruments still found spectral similarities to Vesta, but the blurred images support only a rough elongated shape.
Links
- Preset views
- Wikipedia
- 9969 Braille on Wikipedia
Size neighbors
Objects near 9969 Braille on the scale
On the logarithmic size axis, 9969 Braille falls between Dactyl and 103P/Hartley 2. The band uses nearby Asteroids records.
Shared physical scale
5.22km
Sources
References for 9969 Braille
Measurements and descriptive context are compiled by the Scale of Space team from the references below. If you find an error, please let us know.
- 9969 Braille — Wikipedia
- Visual reference: Wikimedia Commons (Deep Space 1 1999 / NASA / JPL / Ted Stryk, CC BY 3.0)
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About
Scale of Space is a scroll-based journey through the universe, placing objects on a single logarithmic scale so you can compare size across an unbroken range.
Guides explain selected parts of that range, while focused views filter the objects by subject.