The asteroid 2685 Masursky is a main-belt

Asteroid belt

The asteroid belt is the region of the Solar System located roughly between the orbits of the planets Mars and Jupiter. It is occupied by numerous irregularly shaped bodies called asteroids or minor planets...

 asteroid

Asteroid

Asteroids are a class of small Solar System bodies in orbit around the Sun. They have also been called planetoids, especially the larger ones...

. It was discovered by Edward (Ted) Bowell

Edward L. G. Bowell

Edward L. G. Bowell , known as "Ted", is an American astronomer. Bowell was educated at Emanuel School London, University College, London, and the Université de Paris....

 in 1981. It was named after Harold Masursky

Harold Masursky

Harold Masursky was an American geologist and astronomer.He started his career working for the US Geological Survey and later joined NASA as a senior science member. He was responsible for investigation of planetary and lunar surfaces, being interested in finding scientifically valuable landing...

 (1923–1990), a planetary geologist at the U.S. Geological Survey, Flagstaff

Flagstaff, Arizona

Flagstaff is a city located in northern Arizona, in the southwestern United States. In 2010, the city's population was 65,870. The population of the Metropolitan Statistical Area was at 134,421 in 2010. It is the county seat of Coconino County...

, who worked on numerous space missions.

Little was known about Masursky until the Cassini space probe

Cassini-Huygens

Cassini–Huygens is a joint NASA/ESA/ASI spacecraft mission studying the planet Saturn and its many natural satellites since 2004. Launched in 1997 after nearly two decades of gestation, it includes a Saturn orbiter and an atmospheric probe/lander for the moon Titan, although it has also returned...

, en route to Jupiter

Jupiter

Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest planet within the Solar System. It is a gas giant with mass one-thousandth that of the Sun but is two and a half times the mass of all the other planets in our Solar System combined. Jupiter is classified as a gas giant along with Saturn,...

 and Saturn

Saturn

Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second largest planet in the Solar System, after Jupiter. Saturn is named after the Roman god Saturn, equated to the Greek Cronus , the Babylonian Ninurta and the Hindu Shani. Saturn's astronomical symbol represents the Roman god's sickle.Saturn,...

, flew past it on 23 January 2000. Since Cassini passed the asteroid at a distance of 1.6 million kilometres (about four times the Earth

Earth

Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...

–Moon

Moon

The Moon is Earth's only known natural satellite,There are a number of near-Earth asteroids including 3753 Cruithne that are co-orbital with Earth: their orbits bring them close to Earth for periods of time but then alter in the long term . These are quasi-satellites and not true moons. For more...

 distance), the images it returned showed nothing more than a dot. Nevertheless, Cassini was able to determine Masursky's size (about 15–20 km in diameter).

Masursky's orbit places it within the Eunomia family

Eunomia family

The Eunomia family of asteroids is a large grouping of S-type asteroids named after the Greek goddess Eunomia. It is the most prominent family in the intermediate main belt...

 of S-type asteroid

S-type asteroid

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.-Characteristics:...

s. Cassini's observations had cast some doubt on its composition, but later ground-based spectroscopy has confirmed its S-type spectrum.^[2]