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Solar-powered asteroids make their own moons
Most asteroids with moonlets started off as solitary bodies that split in two while sunbathing, new computer simulations suggest.
Once thought to be rare, dozens of binary asteroid systems – kilometre-sized rocks orbited by small moonlets – have been found in the main belt between Mars and Jupiter since the first asteroid pair was spotted by the Galileo spacecraft in 1993. And 15% of all near-Earth asteroids, which cross Earth's orbit, boast satellites.
Various theories have been proposed to explain how they formed. One suggests the pairs were created by collisions between older asteroids, but because of the huge distances between objects in space, such impacts are very rare.
Collisions may account for some large pairs of asteroids in the main belt, where asteroids orbit for billions of years, but the smaller near-Earth asteroids are much more likely to crash into the Sun or one of the inner planets before colliding with each other.
Source Of The Most Common Meteorites Discovered
ScienceDaily (July 10, 2008) — When observing with the GEMINI telescopes, two astronomers from Brazil and the United States discovered for the first time asteroids that are similar to “ordinary chondrites”, the most common meteorites found on Earth. Until now, astronomers have failed to identify their asteroidal sources because of the various geologic processes that occur after the meteorites are ejected from their asteroidal parent body.
Astronomy & Astrophysics is publishing the first discovery by T. Mothé-Diniz (Brazil) and D. Nesvorný (USA) of asteroids with a spectrum similar to that of ordinary chondrites, the meteoritic material that most resembles the composition of our Sun. Most of the meteorites that we collect on Earth come from the main belt of asteroids located between Mars and Jupiter [1]. They were ejected from their asteroidal “parent body” after a collision, were injected into a new orbit, and they finally felt onto the Earth. Meteorites are a major tool for knowing the history of the solar system because their composition is a record of past geologic processes that occurred while they were still incorporated in the parent asteroid.
NWA's Second Class Meteorites?
"I ran across this article this morning. I do realize that it was written in 2003 but it does make one wonder as to the status of meteorites that come from the North West Africa region. Also, on a personal note, I do own a few unclassified and classified NWA's. Anything that comes from our asteroid belt and our solar system is good enough for me."
Skaal!
Ben de la Vega
NWA's: Second Class Meteorites?
By Norbert Classen, May 2003
On the collector's market, the prices of most Northwest African meteorites are still dropping while witnessed falls and historic specimens are getting more expensive. Are NWA meteorites less valuable, or is it a subliminal form of chauvinism making some people treat them like second class meteorites?
The NWA Dilemma
