Slashdot Mirror
Why Hasn't This Asteroid Disintegrated?
sciencehabit writes: Planetary scientists have found an asteroid spinning too fast for its own good. The object, known as 1950 DA, whips around every 2.1 hours, which means that rocks on its surface should fly off into space. What's keeping the remaining small rocks and dust on the surface? The researchers suggest van der Waals forces, weak forces caused by the attraction of polar molecules, which have slightly different charges on different sides of the molecule. For example, water molecules exhibit surface tension because of van der Waals forces, because the negative charge of one water molecule's oxygen atom is attracted to nearby water molecules' hydrogen atoms, which have a positive charge at their surfaces. Similar attractions could be occurring between molecules on the surfaces of different pieces of dust and rock. Such forces would be comparable to those that caused lunar dust to stick to astronauts' space suits.
Give me a nuke, Bruce Willis, Steve Buscemi, and Sad Batman, and I'll make sure that asteroid is good and proper disintegrated!
...that's a space station!
Mystery solved.
"Once we've identified and embraced our sickness, we'll have strength...and that's when we get dangerous." - John Waters
Not an asteroid....
how do they work?
Maybe it doesn't know any better. Rocks aren't exactly known for their keen intelligence.