Archive for Asteroid Belt

You are browsing the archives of Asteroid Belt.

Asteroid Collision

It is possible (but not yet confirmed) that astronomers have observed a collision in the asteroid belt for the first time.
Mystery Object Behaves Both Like a Comet and Asteroid - [discovery.com]
Something awfully curious is happening 250 million miles away in the asteroid belt.
Astronomers think they may be witnessing a never-before-seen collision between two asteroids.
The puzzle [...]

Water on Ceres

Ceres is the largest asteroid in the asteroid belt and was the first asteroid ever discovered, in 1802. Recent data collected by the Hubble Space Telescope suggest that the outer mantle of Ceres is frozen liquid containing ammonia and water. There is evidence that Ceres may be as much as 20% water. [...]

Dawn in the Belt

The Dawn probe spacecraft was launched from Cape Canaveral in September of 2007, used Mars as a slingshot in February of 2009 and has now reached the asteroid belt, where it will remain.
Dawn Takes up Residence in Asteroid Belt - [universetoday.com]
The Dawn spacecraft – which is on a course to study the asteroid Vesta and [...]

Oort Cloud

In 1950, Dutch astronomer Jan Oort (building on an idea originated by Ernst Opik) proposed that a hypothetical and massive cloud of comets that orbit far from the center of our solar system might explain why comets don’t seem to originate from deep space and often have an outer orbital edge about 20-50,000 AUs from [...]

Kuiper Belt

Discovered in 1992, the Kuiper Belt is a large expanse of space just outside the edge of our solar system that contains a large number of small objects. This belt is similar to the asteroid belt, but is much larger, much farther away and may contain more frozen water and volatile gases than the metallic [...]

Small Rocks

We know about the location of many large and medium sized asteroids, but we also know that we have not yet located all of the smaller rocks that may pose threats to life on Earth. Finding them is problematic and getting funding for the search is only the first step. The Tunguska explosion [...]

Titius Bode

The Titius Bode law or hypothesis is a theory that planetary orbits in the Solar System are spaced in a proportional progression such that each successive orbit is roughly twice the distance from the Sun as the orbit just inside it.
Titius-Bode Law - [milanovic.org]
The Titius-Bode Law or Rule is the observation that orbits of planets [...]

Asteroid Groups

In the main asteroid belt, there are groups of asteroids that form clusters in similar orbits. Within the groups are smaller groups known as families who show orbital characteristics that are so similar that it has led to to theories that these families were formed by larger rocks being broken up by collisions. [...]

Scale in Space

It is difficult to fully grasp the concept of scales that are involved in space. The ratio of empty space to matter is HUGE! The size of planets and even stars is dwarfed when compared to the space between them. We try to understand things and visualize them by comparing them to [...]

Space Transport

In space, the dividing line between what is considered to be a habitat and what is considered to be a vehicle will become hazy. Large habitat-like structures can be put into orbits that offer transport from one place to another and from one orbit to another. A habitat placed in an orbit that goes from [...]