Eros A Relic Of Solar System's Dawn, Says NASA

Kumba writes: "Found this news story while browsing NASA's webpage. Before the NEAR Satellite arrived at Eros, scientists wondered what Eros was, be it a piece of a planet that broke up billions of years ago or a jumble of boulders held together by weak gravity. Now NASA believes Eros to be one of the building blocks of our solar system, what astronomers call planetesimals. It's a very interesting article to read, briefly explaining how our solar system came to be through the formation of these planetesimals and proto planets, and other such neat stuff."

Neat

[milgram]

NASA rules.

PR move?

[_anonymity_]

the current theory is that planetesimals -- bodies of rock like asteriods -- come together though gravitiational force to form planets. and over time, those bodies condense through that same force. while it is safe to say that astral bodies similar to EROS are crucial to planet formation, no conclusive proof can be offered to prove that EROS is litle more than an insignifcant asteroid. planetesimals are really little more than large bodies of rock or solid matter. it seems to me that NASA may just be looking for a way to give more value to the (now lifeless) NEAR mission.