Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Asteroids Scarred By Solar System's Violent Youth

Posted by Soulskill on from the kids-these-days dept.

astroengine writes "Telltale evidence of the solar system's traumatic childhood can be found in the main asteroid belt, which contains a far more integrated assortment of bodies than previously believed, a new study shows. Previous observations of the 2,000 or so biggest asteroids in the belt — those with diameters of roughly 100 kilometers (62 miles) or larger — showed a neat structure, with asteroids closer to the sun having surface temperatures warmer than those located farther away. The observations neatly matches theories about the formation of the solar system, which posits that bodies formed in warm environments would be found closer to the sun and those formed in cold environments are farther away."

18 of 31 comments (clear)

  1. Wow by rossdee · · Score: 3, Funny

    " with asteroids closer to the sun having surface temperatures warmer than those located farther away."

    Thats amazing, who would have predicted that

    1. Re:Wow by Talderas · · Score: 1

      Even reading the article doesn't make that line make any more sense. They say that evidence showed the asteroids formed all over the solar system and the remnants that failed to become planets ended up in the asteroid belt. I just don't get how surface temperature has anything to do with indicating where the asteroid may have come from.

      --
      "Lack of speed can be overcome. In the worst case by patience." --Znork
    2. Re:Wow by bob_super · · Score: 1

      What they obviously mean is: the sunscreen retailers are all orbiting Jupiter.

    3. Re:Wow by radtea · · Score: 5, Informative

      From context, I believe they mean "asteroids closer to the sun having surface temperatures *at the time of their formation* that are warmer than those located further away."

      The volatile fraction in asteroid surfaces goes down as they get closer to the sun, indicating they out-gassed at the time they were formed. The "early warmth correlates with current orbits" indicates relatively little orbital resorting over time.

      The new data on smaller bodies suggest this is not the case in general, only for the largest bodies. This is quite important to theories of asteroid formation, which in recent decades have been dominated by the assumption that the asteroid formed "in place".

      --
      Blasphemy is a human right. Blasphemophobia kills.
    4. Re:Wow by the+biologist · · Score: 3, Informative

      Academic jobs are rarely describable as 'cushy' and require lots of work all the time to simply justify their existence. This doesn't mean there are no crackpots, but it does mean your general perspective on academic life as depicted here is flawed.

    5. Re:Wow by mythosaz · · Score: 1

      From context, I believe they mean "asteroids closer to the sun having surface temperatures *at the time of their formation* that are warmer than those located further away."

      Conceptually?

    6. Re:Wow by jafac · · Score: 1

      I think that for most people, (with the exception of your die-hard outdoor survivalist), all of our jobs are pretty cushy - compared to being a hunter-gatherer, surviving harsh winters, and fighting off natures top predators (including other humans).

      Everything's relative.

      --

      These are my friends, See how they glisten. See this one shine, how he smiles in the light.
    7. Re:Wow by kfsone · · Score: 1

      That position seems rather like arriving at a pool table and from 10 seconds of observation concluding that the game is to wait for a black ball to drop into a pocket and then collect a series of balls from a slot under the table and place them on top of it.

      Is this some sort of safe/default position in the absence of significant counter evidence or is it just not thought out? If I see water splashed around a sink, I don't assume that the droplets formed in-place although they *could* be condensation.

      It has to have been vigorous enough to cause a lot of dispersion so that droplets didn't land close enough to clump to the point at which gravity overcomes inertia and pulls them down into the sink.

      --
      -- A change is as good as a reboot.
    8. Re:Wow by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I love how non-scientists here shit on studies by actual scientists, and then give their own bullshit "common sense" analogies to show that the science they don't understand is flawed, by using an nonsensical situation that has nothing to do with the actual conditions being studied.
       
      If you're so smart, read the actual study, then respond using credible objections you produced after learning the relevant cosmology.
       
      You turd burglar.

    9. Re:Wow by slick7 · · Score: 3, Funny

      It's not the solar system's fault, it came from a broken home. We need to be more sympathetic.

      --
      The mind conceives, the body achieves, the spirit manifests.
    10. Re:Wow by CadentOrange · · Score: 1

      ...compared to being a hunter-gatherer, surviving harsh winters, and fighting off natures top predators (including other humans).

      Hey! You've just described my time in Rust!

    11. Re:Wow by kfsone · · Score: 1

      I love how some people think discovery.com is a source of actual scientific facts, unlike places like arxiv.org with their "factual peer reviewed" hoity toity pdf publications, by using waffly long winded jibber jabber that has nothing to do with fun information about cats.

      If you're so smart, spot the actual humor, then respond using credible objections you produced after learning the relevant ability to laugh.

      You semi-evolved simian.

      --
      -- A change is as good as a reboot.
  2. Useless by FrankSchwab · · Score: 1

    Reads like a randomly-generated generated scientific paper - take a sentence from this paper, then a sentence from that one. Some of it reads like it was sent round-trip through Google translate.

    I was unable to glean a single coherent thought from reading this article. Why was this submission even accepted?

    --
    And the worms ate into his brain.
  3. Confusing but ... by PineHall · · Score: 3, Informative

    It does make sense. The summary confuses things and the article is not much better. But if you start with the very last sentence of the article it starts to make some sense.

    "Asteroids’ compositions tell us about where they formed. Where they are today tells us the whole evolution of where they’ve gone since," DeMeo said.

    The composition of an asteroid tell us where it was formed. The old theory was that asteriods can be found close to where they were formed and there was some evidence of that, however with a larger sample the theory is found lacking and things are more complicated. At least that is how I read it.

  4. Re:Asteriod belt? by NoNonAlphaCharsHere · · Score: 1

    The Fendahl had it coming. The Time Lords had no choice.

  5. What the hell Slashdot by harvestsun · · Score: 3, Informative

    The summary leaves out the whole point of the article.

    "The observations neatly match theories about the formation of the solar system, which posits that bodies formed in warm environments would be found closer to the sun and those formed in cold environments are farther away... But a new analysis, this time based on 100,000 asteroids of varying sizes, tells a far different story."

  6. Pluto by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

    Cry me a river. Imagine you're a planet, and then all of a sudden some bastard decides you're not. Scarred? More like traumatized.

    If that happened to me I'd lob Charon at you. Rotten bunch of jumped-up monkeys.

    --
    Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
  7. Dwarfism by FatLittleMonkey · · Score: 1

    The other planets let Pluto in their club, even though it was smaller than several of their moons, just to be polite to the outsider. But then they started seeing more and more of Pluto's close relatives all trying to get into the club on the family ticket. Worse, it looked like there was thousands more, perhaps millions. They risked being completely outnumbered by these Trans-Neptunians, outnumbered by orders of magnitude.

    Fuck this, they thought, there goes the neighbourhood. And they re-voted and kicked Pluto out of the club.

    And all the while, Ceres just laughed and farted. Laughed and farted.

    --
    Science is all about firing a drunk pig out of a cannon just to see what happens.