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Asteroids
Asteroids, or planetoids, are rocks larger than meteorites but smaller than planets that orbit around the Sun.
1,071 Questions
How do you know asteroids have hit the earth?
The evidence that asteroids have collided with earth before, depends on the surface. The way you can find this if there is unusual shapes in the ground( e.g. really deep ditch, that is too big for a human too dig).
Is Jupiter in the inside or outside of the asteroid belt?
To be correct, it is inside. The formation is Sun, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars and then Asteroid belt.
What makes asteroids different from dwarf planets?
You can consider a dwarf planet to be a special case from an asteroid - one that has achieved hydrostatic equilibrium, which basically means that it has enough gravity to force it into a round shape.
Ceres (designated as 1 Ceres) has an average diameter of about 950 km (590 miles). It is by far the largest object in the asteroid belt. It is, however, the smallest dwarf planet. By comparison, Pluto has a diameter of about 2300 km (1430 miles).
The so-called K-T boundary layer is the smoking gun that proved that large asteroids did strike the earth at intervals causing devastation beyond anything that man has seen in recorded history.
Go dig down to the geologic layer that separates the Cretaceous and Tertiary Periods (the K-T boundary) and you'll find the rare earth metal iridium, and in quantities far higher than in the rest of the rock around it. Do your digging anywhere on earth. The iridium is there. Whatever it was that crashed into earth some 65 million years ago had a lot of iridium in it.
The impact site was so large, and the event occurred so long ago that the earth "healed" the scar and it was difficult to detect. But now that we knew what we were looking for - a place where a big hole was punched in the lithosphere - we found it in Mexico and the gulf of the same name. Chicxulub. Yukatan, Mexico. How about a crater over a hundred miles across? Big enough?
Look at the moon. Why wouldn't the earth be subject to the same kind of pounding? Oh, we've got an atmosphere to help protect us, and we have both atmospheric and geologic phenomenon that will "erase" the damaged places in time. But the moon has taken some very large shots to the crust. So has earth. Why wouldn't it have had? And somewhere out there is a large rock with our name on it. We will get hit again. It's not a question of if so much as it's a question of when.
With the use of advanced space-based observation platforms, we've identified more locations where the cosmic hammer has struck. There is a lot of reading posted in various locations on the web for the curious investigator. A link is provided below, and it will take you to the Wikipedia post on the K-T boundry. Why not start there?
What is the mass of the largest asteroid?
(The total mass the asteroid belt is lighter than the moon. The total mass the asteroid belt is lighter than the moon.)
However;
If the total mass of the asteroid belt were reconstituted, it would altogether be less than half of the mass of the moon. But if we consider that if the hot molten interior of a hypothesized planet that might have been the asteroid belt was under great pressure and heat, as are all of the known planets, we could then hypothesize that approximately 90+% of the mass of said hypothesized planet would have been expanded by a factor of at least 1600:1. Possibly more if the interior was superheated. That figure is only if the matter of the interior had the matter weight and density of water. If it were denser, having the same density of magma, then the rate of expansion would be much greater. Possibly as much as 12000:1. So if you take this into consideration, then the asteroid belt could indeed have had a total mass great enough to compete with one of the terrestrial planets
How far away is the inner asteroid belt from the sun?
It is not that far away. The asteroid belt lies between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.
Are most comets found in either Oort cloud or the asteroid belt?
Rocky asteroids. Icy comets often live in and come from the Kuiper Belt.
What is the mass of a dust speck?
Approximately 3,000,000,000,000, or 3 trillion.
To answer precisely it depends on what the dust is composed of and how much the speck of dust really weighs. I assumed that the average molecular mass of dust was 150 grams/mole (about the weight of 10-12 carbon hydrocarbon), and that a speck of dust weighs 1 microgram (a millionth of a gram or 1 x 10-6 grams).
1 x 10-6 grams ÷ 150 grams/mole = 7 x 10-9 moles
7 x 10-9 moles * 6.02 x 1023 atoms/mole = 4 x 1015 or 4,000,000,000,000,000 or 4 quadrillion
This is approximate as I really don't know the weight of a speck of dust nor its molecular mass, but I think my estimate is reasonable, and if nothing else, I am underestimating the weight of a speck of dust.
Do asteroids orbit around the sun like a planet?
Typically, they orbit the sun between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. However, occasionally their orbits are disrupted by the presence of planets, and they end up in more eccentric orbits. Some of the smaller planetary satellites are thought to be asteroids that have been gravitationally captured.
What is the gravity of a asteroid?
Asteroids come in different sizes, from about 10 meters (by definition), to near the size of a planet (as in Pluto or Eris). Correspondingly, the surface gravity will be less or more, depending on the size. The surface gravity of an object 10 meters in diameter will be insignificant - you would probably fly off into space if you push yourself off with a slight movement of your finger.
Is the comet belt in between mars and Jupiter?
No. The asteroid belt is an area between Mars and Jupiter where most of the solar system's asteroids orbit. The Kupier belt is much farther out. It is a region that contains a large number of comets orbiting beyond Neptune.
Does the asteroid belt have any space probes?
As of now, there are no space probes specifically dedicated to exploring the asteroid belt. However, some spacecraft, like NASA's Dawn mission, have studied specific asteroids within the belt before moving on to other targets.
How do you distinguish the difference between an asteroid and a satellite?
It's a bit hard to distinguish them. Planets should not flicker as stars do, but that's not a very sure way to distinguish them. Some of the planets are among the brightest "stars" in the sky - especially Venus, Jupiter, and sometimes Mars. But mainly, planets - and especially the ones that are closer to us - change their position rather quickly. You can notice this change in position if you observe several consecutive nights. Just check the position, compared to the background stars.
Do meteors or asteroids burn up before they hit the earths surface?
Comets rarely come in to the atmosphere at all. On those occasions when a comet does collide with the Earth, it will pass all the way through the atmosphere and hit the surface within a second or two, causing massive destruction.
So it's probably just as well that it hardly ever happens.
What was the larger meteorite that hit the earth?
I believe it was a meteor shower from the Leonid meteor shower, but it was as big as a football field probably.I think God did this because he wanted to make a new race, and the new race is us humans.
Is an asteroid a reflector or shiner?
Yes, but not a really good one like a mirror is.
They reflect a little bit of light, and reflect quite a bit of radar radio waves.
Does the suns gravity hold asteroids?
Yes. Asteroids have some gravity, but it is very weak because of their low mass in comparison to an actual planet.
What are some examples of superstitious beliefs in Philippines about comets and asteroids?
Many cultures have superstitious beliefs about comets and asteroids. The Philippines do not seem to share superstitions of comets and asteroids.
What causes asteroids to leave the asteroid belt?
The smaller an asteroid, the more easily it can be "bumped" out of it's place by an exterior force.
it's position and direction of movement will change. It may find itself gravitationally re-related to some other asteroid, in which case it will stay in the asteroid belt. Or, it may get effected in such a way that it is knocked toward the inner solar system, and it will begin to fall towards the sun - and it may or may not be gravitationally caught by one of the inner planets before it gets to the sun.
