Can one see neighboring asteroids if standing on an asteroid??

[seigell]

Well, can one see neighboring asteroids if standing on an asteroid??

https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/c ... id.991861/

Avoiding the silliest retorts such as "But can you truly STAND on an asteroid?" or "How Dark Tint is your Helmet Visor?" or the answer "sometimes", what would you say is the answer??

[seigell]

As stated in the PhysicsForum thread:

• Asteroid Belt is between 1-2 AU (150M km) from Earth
• Average Separation of Known Asteroids is 100-200K km
• Ceres and Vesta are nominally Naked-Eye from Earth at 5-6mag

What's missed in that thread??

• Ceres and Vesta are Dwarf Planets embedded within the Asteroid Belt
• Ceres and Vesta have higher than average Albedo for Asteroid Belt
• Known asteroids are seen/found/tracked mainly when in Opposition (reflecting sunlight from full aspect)
• Known asteroids have pattern of higher Albedo nearer Mars and lower Albedo nearer Jupiter
• View from "average asteroid" would be from center of Asteroid Belt with few other asteroids in Opposition aspect (most would be seen in a crescent aspect)
• Most asteroids have very irregular shapes and rough surfaces that scatter rather than reflect light

So, the answers "sometimes" and "depends" might be the best that can be achieved...