Asteroids Essay

The reason for these rankings is because although the Asteroid belt is located between Jupiter and Mars, ALL of the other objects in these ranks are orbiting around the Sun… Jupiter’s gravitational pull will cause an asteroid to collide with another asteroid, however, so you could say that Jupiter’s influence is stronger than Mars, and if other asteroids collide with an asteroid, it will change the mass of the asteroid itself by breaking it apart- only to be pulled in again by Mars or Jupiter (and overall, the Sun).

The Kuiper Belt and Oort Cloud objects are remnants of the formation of the solar system. According the the Nice model, the Kuiper belt was once closer to the Sun and much more dense, but was pushed outward by the Jovian planets massive gravitation pull. The Oort Cloud formed, supposedly, from the Jovian planets' gravity as well, because objects and debris that was close enough to the planets were flung outside of the solar system, far enough away from the influence of their gravity. Once these objects are far enough away, their orbit continued around the Sun. Both were made from the original debris in the cloud that formed our solar system.

pag). This seems to be the case because from the beginning, one creature has emerged into a more-developed one. It would be logical for humans, being the most evolved, to emerge into a greater creature with something of "superhero" qualities, one who would be invincible, and a species that would never perish. In comparison to this theory, anthropologist, John Hawks, states, "If in the far distant future, habitable planets beyond our solar system were colonized by Earth migrants, that could provide the necessary isolation for new human species to evolve" (Owen; n. pag). Although this seems highly likely to many, human evolution will cease to exist after this meteor hits Earth. Humans are a very vulnerable and fragile species, a species that can only handle so much. David Christian of Big History says that "humans would drown if we were left in water for too long and would freeze or asphyxiate if we were shot ten kilometers into the atmosphere" (Christian; n. pag). This is exactly why the theory of the destructive meteor is, in fact, accurate. If, or when, this meteor strikes, humans will face the same struggle in which the dinosaurs faced and they too will be classified extinct. The magnitude of this meteor will act like a self destruct button, destroying everything in its path, leaving no sign of further evolution

Now that we can observe earth from outer space, we can find impact crater’s on the earth’s surface. The three largest craters are found in Ontario, Canada , Vredefort, South Africa and the Chicxlub crater (Carter). All three of these craters are massive and the Chicxlub crater has been hypothesized to have destroyed the dinosaurs. According to Charles S. Quoi, in order to make an impact the size of the Chicxlub crater, an asteroid would have had to have been at least six miles in diameter and hit earth at a speed of 12.4 miles per second. In comparison, the largest fragment of SL9 to hit Jupiter was slightly more than 2 miles in diameter (Koppes). To answer our question then, yes, meteorite’s have collided with earth, but will they again

remain in uniform motion unless acted on by an external force. The star pulling the

The asteroid colliding with Earth left evidence in the planets core and mantle with iridium and shocked quartz. Iridium is present in extraterrestrial objects like asteroids and meteorites. The asteroid impact

The multiple impact theory is that not one, but many asteroids hit the earth all around the globe. The asteroids that are suspected include the Chicxulub Meteor, impact crater in Chicxulub, Mexico, the Silverpit Meteor, impact crater in the Silver Pit area of the North Sea, near Great Britain, and the Boltysh Meteor, in the Kirovohrad Oblast, Ukraine. All three of the meteors were dated around 66-62 million years of age; However the Boltysh Meteor is, according to scientists, dated up to two thousand years before the Chicxulub crater. The multiple impact theory states that more than one object slammed into earth; these three impacts are most likely just a few of the many yet undiscovered craters. This theory is actually one of the most possible of ideas for the extinction of life 65 million years ago. Another theory for life dying is a single meteor instead of

“The meteor will hit land mass. It will cause a planet wide extinction. Nearly all of the current life forms will not survive.”

The remaining objects are all referred to as near Earth asteroids, and are classified as either Atens, with a semi-major axis less than 1 AU and an aphelion distance greater than 0.983 AU, Apollos, with a semi-major axis greater than 1 AU and a perihelion distance less than 1.017 AU, or Amors, with a semi-major axis greater than 1 AU and a perihelion distance between 1.017 AU and 1.3 AU (Dunbar, 2004). Dunbar (2004) also describes one final classification for near Earth asteroids, which are potentially hazardous asteroids, defined as having a minimum orbit intersection distance of 0.05 AU and having a minimum diameter of around 150m (Dunbar 2004). All of these classifications are necessary in order to look at the objects in our solar system, and to determine which objects pose a serious risk and need to be monitored, as well as objects which could become dangerous if their orbit is slightly changed by an unexpected collision or gravitational

Asteroids… Meteors… wait Meteoroid? Are all of these the same or are they different? Between Jupiter and Mars a belt of immense Asteroids lay. When suddenly an Asteroid slams into another Asteroid. This sends it plunging toward Mars. Now the gravitational pull from Jupiter that keeps the Asteroids from crashing into one another is too far to keep it floating in space. However, the gravitational pull from the Sun is making this Asteroid orbit the Sun. This Asteroid is called a Meteoroid, because it orbits an object larger than itself, in this case the Sun. After a long period of time orbiting the Sun, the Meteoroid has shrunk and crosses Earth’s orbit. Because of Earth’s gravitational pull the Meteoroid

The majority of Asteroids can be found between the planets Mars and Jupiter located in the Asteroid belt. Other asteroids that aren’t in the asteroid belt will orbit the sun in the same direction as the planets. These asteroid can be scattered all over our solar system. Examples of asteroids in the asteroid belt are Ceres, Vesta, Pallas, and Hygiea. Examples of asteroids floating in space are Apollo and Aten who cross our orbit every year.

Estimated to comprise one third of its home, the asteroid belt, Ceres is the largest object out in the asteroid belt. Ceres has a diameter of 945 km, still smaller than Pluto, which has a diameter of 2,372 km. It is made of a rocky core, icy mantle, and it has been hypothesized that Ceres has an internal ocean of liquid water underneath

An old theory of Planet X, the distant, possibly alien environment on the far reaches of our solar system, has come back to life. Some believe that it redirected rogue asteroids and comets hurtling into the inner solar system. One of which may have hit Earth causing the extinction of dinosaurs. Are humans at risk for this happening again?

On September 27, 2007, the Dawn has launched from the Kennedy space center in Florida. Dawn is the first asteroid probe to explore Vesta and Ceres which are the two largest members of the asteroid belt. Most asteroids, including Vesta, dwell at the asteroid belt that sits between Mars and Jupiter. Other asteroids are closer to the sun than the earth's orbit, while a lot of them has the common the orbits of the planet. Not all asteroids will stay where they were. Although in the past more than two centuries of observation, humans can be observed a variety of asteroids, some strange asteroid has attracted the attention of scientists. The following are seven strange asteroids in the solar system.

The difference between an asteroid and a comet is commonly misunderstood; anything smaller than ten meters across is called a meteoroid, with the broader term minor planet is preferred by the International Astronomical Union. Other languages prefer "planetoid" and this term is used in English for differentiating between larger minor planets such as the dwarf planets. The word planetesimal has a similar meaning, but refers to the small building blocks of the planets that existed when the Solar System was forming. The three largest objects in the asteroid belt, Ceres, 2 Pallas, and 4 Vesta, grew to the stage of protoplanets. Ceres is a dwarf planet, the only one in the inner Solar System. The main difference between an asteroid and a comet is that a comet shows a coma due to sublimation of near surface ices by solar radiation. A few objects have ended up being dual-listed because they were first classified as minor planets but later showed evidence of comet like activity. Conversely, some comets are eventually depleted of their surface volatile ices and become asteroids. A further distinction is that comets typically have more eccentric orbits than most asteroids; most "asteroids" with notably eccentric orbits are probably dormant or extinct comets (Weissman et al, 2002).