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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
Is the total mass of the Kuiper belt greater than that of the asteroid belt?
Yes, the mass of the Kuiper belt exceeds that of the asteroid belt, and it is something like 20 to 200 times more massive. The Kuiper belt is a long way away, and the objects in it are mostly small, so it is through gravimetric studies that we "guestimate" the Kuiper belt's mass. A link can be found below for more information.
Is mars in or out of the asteroid belt?
Mars is an "inner planet", but it's not in the main asteroid belt.
There are the inner planets, then the asteroid belt, then the outer planets.
What is the difference between an asteroid and meteroid?
An asteroid is a rocky object in space that's not as big as a planet and isn't a moon. There are millions of them, think the asteroid belt in space. A meteor is an asteroid that burns up as it enters the Earth's atmosphere, think shooting stars. A meteorite is a meteor that actually lands on the surface of Earth, think about Russia today.
As for a meteoroid? No one really knows. They're just kind of like smaller asteroids.
What types of damage could be expected from a collision from an asteroid?
World annihilation comes to mind.
Which planet is closest to a region of asteroids?
Orbits of the planets Mars and Jupiter are closest to the region of asteroids.
What is the smallest asteroid?
1991 BA is the closest and smallest asteroid yet observed outside the Earth's atmosphere. Reference.
What is a Barringer Meteor Crater and how wide is it?
"The Barringer Meteorite Crater (also known as "Meteor Crater") is a gigantic hole in the middle of the arid sandstone of the Arizona desert. A rim of smashed and jumbled boulders, some of them the size of small houses, rises 150 feet above the level of the surrounding plain. The crater itself is nearly a mile wide, and 570 feet deep."
There are plenty of famous meteors, to know which one specifically you are speaking about, I would need a name. The most famous is probably the one that many believe killed all the dinosaurs. This meteor is estimated to be about 6 miles wide, and created a crater about 110 miles across. Many believe that the Chicxulub Crater in Yucatan, Mexico is this meteor.
Is the starter inside the motor?
No, the starter motor is normally on the outside of an engine connected by a belt.
If earth collided with asteroid where would you hide?
If the Earth collides with a large asteroid, the only place to hide would be "someplace else". Like, on the Moon or Mars. The Earth is small and fragile, and as long as 100% of the human race is living on the surface of the Earth, we have "all of our eggs in one basket".
This is one of the primary reasons for going into space; to give us somewhere so that all of humanity won't be abruptly extinguished on one cosmic catastrophe.
Is it possible to destroy an asteroid?
The only thing that destroys asteroids (until now) has been collisions with other objects; other asteroids, the Moon, the Earth, other planets or the Sun. (There have been asteroids that have fallen into the Sun!) When an asteroid collides with another asteroid, it doesn't actually destroy either asteroid; it just breaks both of them into smaller pieces.
Asteroids may be called minor planets in that they are like Earth or the other planets but much smaller. The idea of asteroid mining is that objects like these that are relatively close to Earth could be mined for substances that are either (a) becoming scarce here, or (b) would be useful or valuable in making journeys to more distant places. There's an article about asteroid mining on wikipedia.
Why are stars and planets round while asteroids are irregular?
A body has to be of a minimum size before there is enough gravity to crush it into a spherical shape. This is about 800 km across. Ceres is the only object in the asteroid belt that is spherical at 925 km across. This also depends on what the object is made of. One made of ice is easier to crush into a sphere than rock.
What are the nearby asteroids that can hit the earth?
Well I guess any asteroid could hit Earth.
For a complete list of NEO - see related link .
There are several hundred asteroids that could hit Earth, most of them have not been named, or even discovered yet.
Where can you get information on bands of asteroids?
You can find information on bands of asteroids from official sources like NASA's Asteroid Watch website, the Minor Planet Center, and scholarly articles in astronomy journals. Additionally, websites like Space.com and Universe Today often cover news and developments regarding asteroids and their groupings.
What happends if a asteroid collides with an object?
The result wold depend on the energy created by the collision. In most cases both objects would shatter into pieces that would spin away in a variety of new directions. If the asteroid collides with a much bigger object (a planet) then it will create an impact crater in the planet and the asteroid and a bit of the planet's surface will melt.
A system in which plants moons asteroids and comets orbit a star?
Natural objects that orbit a star form that star's solar system. The name comes from the name of our star, which is Sol. Earth is part of the Solar System. Another star's system might be referred to by the name of that star, as in the Polaris System.
What layer of earth atmosphere blocks meteors from hitting the earth?
All layers of the atmosphere. Depending on the angle at which a meteoroid enters the earth's atmosphere, it follows a trajectory towards the earth's surface. While doing so, aerodynamic friction heats it up and it becomes a meteor. It may fragment and burn up entirely but otherwise, it will remain a meteor all the way down to the earth's surface and, when it strikes, it will become a meteorite.
Will the Apophis "God of Chaos" asteroid hit the Earth in 2029?
Nothing is 100 percent guaranteed in astronomy, but scientists don’t expect the asteroid 99942-Apophis to come into contact with the Earth (or any other celestial bodies in our solar system, for that matter).
A blog post from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) at the California Institute of Technology notes that on Friday, April 13, 2029, 99942-Apophis will “cruise harmlessly by Earth, about 19,000 miles (31,000 kilometers) above the surface.”
You read that right: An asteroid will come incredibly close to the Earth on Friday the 13th. If you’re superstitious, that seems like bad news, but astronomers aren’t worried.
“That’s within the distance [of] some of our spacecraft that orbit Earth,” the blog notes. “The international asteroid research community couldn't be more excited.”
Note that they use the word “excited,” not “terrified.”
"The Apophis close approach in 2029 will be an incredible opportunity for science," Marina Brozović, a radar scientist at JPL, said in a statement. "We'll observe the asteroid with both optical and radar telescopes. With radar observations, we might be able to see surface details that are only a few meters in size."
Without radar, telescopes, or other tools, Apophis will still be impressive. It will be visible to the naked eye and will look like a star moving across the sky. From our perspective, it will become visible above Australia, then move across the Atlantic Ocean, reaching the U.S. West Coast in the early hours of the evening.
Apophis was discovered in June 2004, and later that year, a group of Australian astronomers spotted it a second time and calculated a 2.7 percent chance of a collision with Earth. However, subsequent calculations have ruled out that possibility for the 2029 flyby.
What about future flybys? Speaking to Newsweek, astronomer Davide Farnocchia put the chances of a collision after 2060 at “less than 1 in 100,000.” That’s still incredibly close by the standards of astronomy, but it’s not something to worry about.
If Apophis did come into contact with Earth, it could cause devastating damage, but at 1,110-feet wide, it’s not large enough to cause a global extinction. Asteroids only pose an existential threat to life on Earth when they’re several miles wide; at those sizes, they could throw up enough dust from the planet’s surface to block out sunlight, preventing plant growth and causing global temperature changes. Scientists believe that the object that contributed to the extinction of dinosaurs was about seven to eight miles wide.
Apophis isn’t a threat at all—at least, it won’t be in 2029. If you’ve got clear skies that night, count yourself lucky and watch the show (and don’t worry about taking out extra insurance).
What happens when an asteroid orbits too close to Mars or Jupiter?
For Mars, it is likely to get pulled in to the gravitational field, and not collide with the planet at first but get sling shot around it. It will then return in several years and sling shot another three or four times before colliding with it. It's also possible that the force of the "sling shot" effect will rocket the asteroid away, and it will not come back, or will get sucked in to another gravitational field.
For Jupiter, the most likely thing to happen is the asteroid entering the atmosphere and breaking up.
Why are some asteroid called neo's?
In dicussing asteroids, NEO stands for Near-Earth Object. NEOs are asteroids whose orbits come close to or cross Earth's. This creates a potential hazard for a collision.
Why is an approaching asteroid or meteor might not detected right away?
because its so far away the speed of light cant see it so we would only be able to see it 5 years later.
When is a big asteroid next predicted to hit earth?
We don't know when the next big asteroid strike on earth will be. But we are sure it will happen. Sooner or later. There will always be a number of predictions out there as regards when we'll get hit again, but until you hear it from a group of astronomers who have done their homework, it would be wise not to worry too much about it. Oh, and those "seers" who say one is coming? They'll be passing the hat or otherwise expecting payment. Little rocks from space hit the earth all the time. But the history of the earth clearly shows that every once in a while, a very large rock from space slams into us. The damage is so great that large numbers of individual plants and animals are wiped out. Additionally, whole groups of species are killed off indirectly in the aftermath of the collision, and this owing to the damage to the biosphere the blast causes. We think the dinosaurs were terminated as a result of the effects of such a blast. We are starting to look for these near earth objects now. We've got extra eyes on the skys to see if we can spot them. We're crunching numbers all the time on rocks we spot to see if any are coming uncomfortably close. But we haven't seen the next big one with our name on it. Yet.
In fact, many asteroids hit the earth every year!
Most of them are small enough to burn up in the atmosphere though, and the few that reach the surface are too small to cause significant damage so there is no reason to worry.
Big asteroids that can significantly damage our environment or kill many people, plants and animals do hit the planet from time to time, but the chances that we would not see it coming many years before and send up a rocket to "nudge it out of the way" are really really low.
No, ateroids will hit earth when toilets fly!
