hitchhikers guide to the solar system

the nature of: asteroid quakes

In 2010, Richard Binzel, a professor of planetary sciences at MIT, identified a likely explanation: Asteroids orbiting in our solar system’s main asteroid belt, situated between Mars and Jupiter, are exposed to cosmic radiation, changing the chemical nature of their surfaces and reddening them over time. By contrast, Binzel found that asteroids that venture out […]

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Mars-crossers that are also Earth-crossers or grazers

These objects are not catalogued as Mars-crossers in databases such as the Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s online Small-body Database Browser. Instead, they are categorized as Near Earth Objects (NEOs).

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The mammoth asteroid set to fly by Earth last night just disappeared

The most likely explanation is that its orbit was miscalculated. Even with its current whereabouts unknown, the near earth asteroid poses no present danger to Earth — in fact, if anything, its loss indicates that 2000 EM26 is probably further out in space that was originally thought.

The mammoth asteroid set to fly by Earth last night just disappeared

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