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According to new research, at least 85% of the 200,000 asteroids in the internal asteroid belt – the main source of terrestrial meteorites – come from five or six major primordial planetesimals; the remaining 15% can also trace their origins to the same group of ancient bodies.
The concept of this artist shows a young planetary system. Photo Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech
The findings, published in the journal Nature Astronomy provide a more solid understanding of the evolutionary history of asteroids and the materials that compose them – the most important of which is information could prove essential to protect the Earth and ourselves from mbadive meteorites.
"These large bodies moving on Earth, so we are very concerned about the number of these elements and the types of materials that they contain," said the main author. Professor Stanley Dermott, of the University of Florida
"If ever one of these comes to Earth, and we want to divert it, we must know what is its nature."
Professor Dermott and his colleagues at the Observatory and the Armagh Planetarium, the National Observatory of Optical Astronomy, the Florida Space Institute, and the University of Florida have demonstrated that the type of orbit of an asteroid depends on the size of the asteroid.
that meteorite differences found on Earth appear because of the evolutionary changes that took place in some large precursor bodies that existed more than 4 billion years ago.
"I would not be surprised if we found the origins of all asteroids" The knowledge of the evolutionary history of the bodies that formed our early solar system helps theoretical astronomers answer the question. Questions related to where planets like ours could exist in the Universe. "
" But, first, we must understand the processes that produced the planet we live on.
_____ [19659005] Stanley F. Dermott and others The common origin of family and non-family asteroids Nature Astronomy published online 2 July 2018, doi: 10.1038 / s41550-018-0482-4
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