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Strange Asteroids Baffle Scientists
Raver32 writes to mention that two nearby asteroids may be evidence of a new class of asteroid or long eroded mini-world. Mineral evidence gathered using photometric data shows these asteroids to contain basalt not normally found in asteroid belt objects. "The lack of basalt and another mineral, olivine, in asteroid belt objects has long puzzled scientists. These two minerals would have formed the crust and mantle, respectively, of belt objects the size of Vesta or larger; theory predicts that more than half of all asteroids should be composed of one or the other of these substances"
That's no asteroid....
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
When the facts don't fit the theory, maybe it's time to re-evaluate the theory.
init 11 - for when you need that edge.
I just wish people in other fields, politics, religion, law, philosophy, etc would admit when they are baffled as readily as the scientists do. For all the amount of explanations they offer and advance understanding of nature, these scientists seem to delight on admitting they are baffled at the drop of a hat.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
Seems to me that if some of these basalt asteroids are chunks left over from a collision, the target of the collision would likely be in bad shape. Could the remainder of the Main Belt asteroids be the pieces of the target? Sign me up to go check 'em out...
Understanding the scope of the problem is the first step on the path to true panic.
maybe that little triangular spaceship finally made his way and succeeded blowing some asteroids up.
Faster than a Speeding Byte!
Global warming.
Geology - it's not rocket science; it's rock science
It would appear as though the above 'theory' is incorrect if, up until now, very little basalt has been detected. Perhaps the material in the asteroid belt never went through the planetary formation stages necessary to form such rocks (volcanism).
The presence of this new class of material might suggest that the asteroid belt is made up of the remains of a small planet (moon perhaps) plus lots of additional garbage that never formed a planet.
Have gnu, will travel.
I'll raise your cynical view of the world: Funding is easier to secure if the research is assured to support specific answers.
t
Good ol' Theia :). IIRC, the Science Channel will be showing "What if we had no Moon" on the 28th (next Tuesday). I'm I'm remembering correctly this does a great explanation of the Giant Impact Theory (though the impactor is referred to as Orpheus on the show - both Theia and Orpheus are two different names used for the same thing, though Theia is a little more common).
"People who think they know everything are very annoying to those of us who do."-Mark Twain
> Non-scientists seem to have so much trouble understanding the ease with which a scientist
> will happily admit to being wrong or being surprised or baffled or just plain shocked and
> stunned.
Many non-scientist just view science as a new religion, one that just happens to be much better at delivering miracles that the older religions. So they expect scientists to act like priests, and utter absolute truths.
When discussing science versus religion, it is not the religious nuts I find most annoying, but those laypeople who believe in science as if it was a religion.
If you crave the Truth, go to a priest. Any of them will do, they all have an absolute truth to offer. But truth is no matter for science. What we can offer is predictions with a better track record than anyone else.