Questions regarding relatively small rocky bodies in an orbit around the Sun.
Questions tagged [asteroids]
346 questions
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Why did the distribution of asteroids discovered in 2010 have a radial modulation?
This answer links to one of Scott Manley's excellent asteroid videos Asteroid Discovery - 1970-2015 - 8K resolution. The animation highlights the positions of the meteors at the moment of their discovery, and by watching one can see the technology…
uhoh
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Where on Earth could dinosaurs feel the impact of their extinction asteroid?
Did the possible Chicxulub asteroid impact around 66 million years ago that made the dinosaurs and many other species extinct, cause the Earth to wobble? How large was the area, where they could "feel" the impact's consequences?
Peter U
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13
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Why are asteroids so much richer in precious metals than Earth's crust?
Did the majority of Earth's precious metals sink below the crust during Earth's formation?
zucculent
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13
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What are the benefits of collecting asteroid samples in situ rather than just waiting for bits of asteroids to fall as meteorites?
Hayabusa and Hayabusa2 are sample return missions from asteroids. But little bits of asteroids fall to Earth all the time as meteorites. Why can't we just study those? What are the advantages of going to get a sample off the surface of an asteroid?…
usernumber
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Could asteroid 'Oumuamua actually be round?
News articles have mentioned that the recently discovered asteroid 'Oumuamua is theorized to be greatly elongated based on observations of brightness variation. However, this hypothesis seems to be based on the assumption that the object's albedo…
user2127894
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8
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1 answer
How to estimate age of asteroid family Erigon
I have one problem:
On picture below we can see Erigone family asteroids in plane semimajor axis - absolute magnitude. Based on V-type as a consequence of Yarkovsky effect, estimate age of this family bearing in mind that members of this family…
user110822
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7
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What would happen if asteroid 99942 Apophis collides with the earth?
In the news recently it's been said that in 2029 the asteroid called Apophis, aka 'The God of Chaos', will fly by very close to earth. To quote Geek.com
In 2029, a massive asteroid called 99942 Apophis will fly past our
planet at an approximate…
dlofrodloh
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Could we detect if Oumuamua asteroid wasn't an asteroid?
If Oumuamua wasn't an asteroid, could we detect that it is not an asteroid?
Disclaimer: I do NOT suggest that Oumuamua is in fact an alien spacecraft, a giant coffin, or a statue of Weird Al.
Since it apparently has a very unusual shape, if this is…
Matthieu Charbonnier
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6
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Are there any estimates for the combined mass of all near earth objects (NEOs)?
I tried looking around but couldn't find any sources attempting to answer this particular question. It's obviously impossible to know the exact answer, but all I'm looking for is an estimate. My best guess would be that it's about a tenth (or…
Ninosław Brzostowiecki
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How can we be certain that Ryugu is a remnant of the material that did not form planets?
As mentioned here, that Ryugu is a part of the Solar System material that did not get swept into forming a planet.
But how can we be sure that it was not created later for example by an asteroid striking Mars or some other planet? Why do we think…
safe_malloc
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4
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What will happen to a metal asteroid if it impacts the Earth? Will it disintegrate or will it stay intact?
I recently read about the Psyche asteroid which is mostly metal. It got me wondering: what if a metal asteroid (not the size of Psyche - maybe about 1 mile long and 1 mile wide) impacted the Earth's surface?
Will the asteroid break apart into…
Dave2DS
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4
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What are the maximum and minimum impact speeds for an asteroid that would strike the Earth?
I gather that the impact speed depends on the radius of the orbit of the asteroid.
Is the orbit of asteroids in the same direction around the sun, or can they move in the "opposite" direction?
B Seven
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4
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Has someone ever captured footage of the collision of a meteoroid and a meteoroid?
For a video game I'm looking for footage of a collision of meteoroids or maybe asteroids, not planets. Even though I have searched for a while I couldn't find anything. So has anyone ever captured footage?
user10219
4
votes
1 answer
Dynamic Method-Please explain
How exactly, with steps and math shown, do you derive the masses of asteroids via perturbations? please, no links, because I have searched and searched for years and can't find anything.
I mean like asteroids- how are their masses determined…
Damon Blevins
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What do we know about the relation of shape to size in asteroids?
Have enough good measurements been made of small asteroids to gather interesting statistics about roundness? Perhaps a scatter chart of each body's greatest and least diameter?
Anton Sherwood
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