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The layers of the Earth, a differentiated planetary body. In planetary science, planetary differentiation is the process by which the chemical elements of a planetary body accumulate in different areas of that body, due to their physical or chemical behavior (e.g. density and chemical affinities).
Internal differentiation of large asteroids is possibly related to their lack of natural satellites, as satellites of main belt asteroids are mostly believed to form from collisional disruption, creating a rubble pile structure. [77]
The classification scheme uses the letter "I" for "inconsistent" spectral data, and should not be confused with a spectral type. An example is the Themistian asteroid 515 Athalia, which, at the time of classification was inconsistent, as the body's spectrum and albedo was that of a stony and carbonaceous asteroid, respectively. [8]
Similar differentiation processes are believed to have occurred on some of the large moons and dwarf planets, [32] though the process may not always have been completed: Ceres, Callisto, and Titan appear to be incompletely differentiated. [114] [115] The asteroid Vesta, though not a dwarf planet because it was battered by impacts out of ...
Its density is low (around 1.4 times the density of water), indicating that the asteroid is porous; best-fit models estimate it had an original composition by volume of 35% rock, 13% ice and 52% internal voids, and that today it consists of a pristine anhydrous outer layer, and a differentiated interior, with meltwater having percolated inward ...
A prominent example is 1 Ceres, the largest asteroid, which is an interloper in the family once named after it (the Ceres family, now the Gefion family). Spectral characteristics can also be used to determine the membership (or otherwise) of asteroids in the outer regions of a family, as has been used e.g. for the Vesta family , whose members ...
The small near-Earth asteroid 25143 Itokawa is a prime example of a rubble pile, with numerous boulders covering its surface. In astronomy, a rubble pile is a celestial body that consists of numerous pieces of debris that have coalesced under the influence of gravity. Rubble piles have low density because there are large cavities between the ...
A chondrite / ˈ k ɒ n d r aɪ t / is a stony (non-metallic) meteorite that has not been modified by either melting or differentiation of the parent body. [a] [1] They are formed when various types of dust and small grains in the early Solar System accreted to form primitive asteroids.