S-type asteroids are of a stony composition, hence the name. Approximately 17% of asteroids are of this type, making it the second most common after the C-type.
S-types are moderately bright (with an albedo of 0.10 to 0.22) and consist mainly of iron- and magnesium-silicates. They are dominant in the inner asteroid belt within 2.2 AU, common in the central belt within about 3 AU, but become rare farther out. The largest is 15 Eunomia (about 330 k...
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S-type asteroids are of a stony composition, hence the name. Approximately 17% of asteroids are of this type, making it the second most common after the C-type.
S-types are moderately bright (with an albedo of 0.10 to 0.22) and consist mainly of iron- and magnesium-silicates. They are dominant in the inner asteroid belt within 2.2 AU, common in the central belt within about 3 AU, but become rare farther out. The largest is 15 Eunomia (about 330 km wide across its longest dimension), with the next largest members by diameter being 3 Juno, 29 Amphitrite, 532 Herculina and 7 Iris. These largest S-types are visible in 10x50 binoculars at most oppositions; the brightest, 7 Iris, can occasionally become brighter than +7.0, which is a higher magnitude than any asteroid except the unusually reflective 4 Vesta.
Their spectrum has a moderately steep slope at wavelengths shorter than 0.7 µm, and has moderate to weak absorption features around 1 µm and 2 µm. The 1 µm absorption is indicative of...
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