D-class asteroid

A very dark and non-reflective asteroid, reddish in color, probably due to the surface presence of organic materials. Rare in the main belt, D-class asteroids crop up with increasing regularity beyond about 3.3 AU from the Sun. They have albedos of 0.02 to 0.05 and appear to be made of some of the most primitive material in the solar system.

Examples are found among many of Jupiter's Trojan, including the largest, Hektor. Also the martian moons Phobos and Deimos may well be D-class asteroids and the Tagish Lake meteorite has been confirmed as being a likely D-class fragment.

Related category

• ASTEROIDS AND OTHER MINOR PLANETS: TYPES AND GROUPS

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