Where does most meteorites come from?

Most asteroids and meteorites are splinters of five or six minor planets that formed during the childhood of the solar system notes a study published by Nature Astronomy .

See also: Why are small asteroids the most dangerous?

At least 85% of the 200,000 asteroids of the inner asteroid belt, located between Mars and Jupiter and the main source of these bodies falling on Earth, come from this handful of planets.

For the remaining 15%, you can also trace your origins to the same group as Primal Body according to the main author of the study and astronomer University of Florida (United States) Stanely Dermott

See also: Uranus struck by an object 2 times larger than Earth

The professor said, in a statement, that this discovery is important to understand the materials yielded to the Earth which is a rocky planet .

This discovery provides a better understanding of the history evolutionary asteroids and the materials that compose them, information that "may be essential to protect the Earth and ourselves from meteorites the size of the Statue of Liberty and asteroids more powerful than atomic bombs ".

Protecting the Earth They are more powerful than atomic bombs

These large bodies pbad near the Earth and therefore "we are very interested in how many there are and what kind of materials they contain ", because" if ever "he goes to Earth and we want to divert him we must know what is his nature " he added. [19659004] The Dermott team has shown that the type of orbit The size of an asteroid depends on its size, suggesting that the meteorite differences found on Earth are due to changes evolution in some large precursor bodies that existed more than 4 billion years ago 19659004]

Dermott badured him that this would not come as a surprise if it was finally concluded that this small group of bodies is at the origin of all the asteroids in the main belt and not only of those who found in the inner belt