Asteroids Essay

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

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 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

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

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

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.

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

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?

Many amounts of asteroid elements such as iridium were found in rock debris along with other asteroid particles. The discovery of Iridium sparked the attention of multiple scientists and researchers. Iridium is rare in the Earth’s crust, but it is plentiful in most asteroids and large meteorites. With Iridium found in the Earth’s crust, researchers have concluded that an asteroid composed of Iridium struck Earth at its boundaries of layers. Further studies have indicated that this Iridium layer has been found in more than 100 locations around the globe, providing data that this event was truly universal (“Dinosaurs.”). In addition, the measurements and evidence are accurate with the asteroid that made impact. After many decades of research and searching scientists identified a massive crater associated with materials of Iridium. Many pieces Iridium are buried beneath sentiments of rock, many surrounding the coast of Yucatan. Debris and sediments are revealed by high graphing the strength and power of gravity over that area. With these statistics and drilling methods to observe the area, it is concluded that a relatively large impact happened 65 million years ago. After the calculations and drilling, astronomers charted many asteroids that have crossed Earth’s orbit and atmosphere. From abundant study efforts and orbital data, it is estimated that asteroids of

gravity and Earth’s velocity keeps it orbiting around the sun. The planets are traveling at

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.

Asteroids. Commonly thought of as a natural doomsday device, these hunks of space rock clutter the solar system by the millions. Many give the asteroids credit for all sorts of cataclysmic events such as the extinction of the dinosaurs. Others claim the asteroids can cause cataclysmic events such as the extinction of humankind. Amidst these fears lie a truth: Asteroids are interplanetary gold-mines, filled to the brim with platinum-group metals (PGMs), and some are close. As of June 2014, there are 11052 near-Earth Asteroids known (Chamberlin 1); All just waiting for

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.

When the first asteroids were discovered they were thought to be planets, just like every other star in the sky. It is only with the advancement of astronomy that the differentiation could occur. Asteroids are minor planets or sometimes referred to as planetoids or planetesimals. Those names are given to anything in the solar system that does not seem to have the roundedness of a planetary body or the typical characteristics of a comet. Asteroids can form in a number of ways; they can be pieces of a larger extinct planet or a planet that was in the stages of forming when some event occurred to change its path. A majority of the asteroids we know are

Many of Earth’s most catastrophic collisions with NEO’s happened billions of years ago. One example of a near earth object that crashed on earth is the previously mentioned 10 km (diameter) comet responsible for Chicxulub crater and the extinction of the Jurassic period. Although this happened 65 billion years ago, it drastically changed the planet and is possibly one of the reasons we exist today. A smaller (about 30m diameter) yet still powerful asteroid, Tunguska, entered the Earth’s atmosphere