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Mars is being stalked – not just by humans with their eyes on future missions and potential colonies above Earth – but by another space rock.
This asteroid is much smaller than the red planet. Otherwise known as the Trojan horse, it follows the orbit of a planet because it is gravitationally trapped 60 degrees ahead or behind that planet. It could have detached itself from the Moon while intense collisions were still shaping the early solar system. An international team of astronomers and planetary researchers from the Armagh Observatory and Planetarium (AOP) in Northern Ireland observed it with the X-SHOOTER spectrograph at the Very Large Telescope. X-SHOOTER (which looks totally like Star Wars technology belonging to an X-wing) has revealed something strange.
It turns out that despite the Mars leak, asteroid 101429 appears to share DNA with the Moon. Further study will tell if this is really a moon fragment that ruptured in a massive crash billions of years ago. It could be from Mars or the inner main asteroid belt. However, X-SHOOTER measured its brightness at different wavelengths of light which showed its spectral profile. The research team, led by astronomer Apostolos Christou, who recently conducted a study published in Icarus, realized that his spectral DNA had more in common with the Moon than anything else.
“Asteroids shine by reflected sunlight, so the profile determined by X-SHOOTER will always show the spectrum of the sun,” Christou told the SYFY thread. “But astronomers can explain this and establish a characteristic profile of the asteroid that produced it. This can then be used to compare the asteroid with other asteroids, meteorites, or even planetary surfaces. “
The type of minerals present on an asteroid’s surface can be determined by their different colors, which is why spectral profiles can reveal the origin of this piece of cosmic debris, but it is not always easy to discover. Sometimes they share DNA with more than one other object. The spectrum of 101429 showed high levels of pyroxene, which is common on objects the size of a planet. The surface of the Moon is full of pyroxene. Most of it is in walls and craters, but this mineral also exists in smaller but still substantial amounts on Mars, but Mars has the amount of pyroxene in it because it is much larger than the Moon.
Suspicion of Mars was stronger when 101429 was more closely associated with the other Trojans it was related to, the Eureka family. The problem is, their chemical compositions don’t match. 101429 is rich in pyroxene, while Eureka asteroids contain large amounts of olivine. This is indicative of their origin of what must now be a planetary mantle. Olivine is typically found in the bowels of a planet, deep within the mantle, while pyroxene tends to linger in the crust. Christou thinks there is another reason why a Martian origin might be possible.
“The origin of this asteroid from Mars is also attractive, in that it takes less energy – hence a smaller impactor – to project the asteroid from Mars towards its Trojan clouds than to bring it. from the Moon, “he said.
Mars has a crater that could betray the origins of 101429. Its Borealis Basin is almost as large as the entire planet, and anything that was thrown from the collision that left a crater there would have made the debris task easier. it to where 101429 is now.
This still does not rule out the Moon. The composition of planets and other bodies depends on the materials available in the area where they are formed. The Moon and Mars are mostly made of the same material, and while the amounts vary, that means they formed at roughly the same distance from the Sun. Trojans arouse so much scientific curiosity because they are relics of the early phases of the solar system when larger planets and moons are formed. There have been a few Martian Trojans found closer to the Sun, which should be understandable considering their makeup indicates that they must have formed around the same area.
“Near the Sun, water and other volatile substances don’t exist in solid form, and all you have to do with the planets is rock and metal,” Christou said.
So, is there any ultimate way to prove whether 101429 is a disembodied piece of the Moon or Mars? More data is needed before this can happen. The only way to be sure is to measure its composition directly or to send a spacecraft to capture a sample and bring it back to Earth. Upcoming telescopes, more powerful than anything we have today, such as the James Webb Telescope and the Vera C. Rubin Observatory, could give us that information, and GAIA could perhaps see something in the meantime.
For now, it looks like Mars has a fan base.
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