Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Asteroids have historically been observed from Earth. The first close-up observation of an asteroid was made by the Galileo spacecraft. Several dedicated missions to asteroids were subsequently launched by NASA and JAXA, with plans for other missions in progress. NASA's NEAR Shoemaker studied Eros, and Dawn observed Vesta and Ceres.
These are composed primarily of S-type asteroids, whereas the neighboring Hungaria family includes some E-types. [101] The Phocaea family orbit between 2.25 and 2.5 AU from the Sun. [102] Skirting the outer edge of the asteroid belt is the Cybele group, orbiting between 3.3 and 3.5 AU. These have a 7:4 orbital resonance with Jupiter.
The fragments then formed Bennu and other "rubble pile" asteroids - loose amalgamations of rocky material rather than solid objects. Early in its history, some of the ice inside the parent body ...
The asteroids Bennu and Ryugu have a measured bulk density which suggests that their internal structure is a rubble pile. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] Many comets and most smaller minor planets (<10 km in diameter) are thought to be composed of coalesced rubble.
The findings suggest either that the chemistry emerged de novo on both the asteroid and on Earth, or that other, similar asteroids may have brought us the raw ingredients of life when they ...
In samples NASA brought back from the asteroid Bennu, scientists have discovered of organic compounds, including key building blocks of life like amino acids.
Interlopers are asteroids classified as family members based on their so-called proper orbital elements but having spectroscopic properties distinct from the bulk of the family, suggesting that they, contrary to the true family members, did not originate from the same parent body that once fragmented upon a collisional impact.
Since then numerous binary asteroids and several triple asteroids have been detected. [1] The mass ratio of the two components – called the "primary" and "secondary" of a binary system – is an important characteristic. Most binary asteroids have a large mass ratio, i.e. a relatively small satellite in orbit around the main component.