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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."

6 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 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.
    2. 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.

    3. 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.
  2. 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.

  3. 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."