An Asteroid the Size of a Dwarf Planet Is Lurking In Our Solar System (livescience.com) 38
Long-time Slashdot reader fahrbot-bot summarizes an article from LiveScience: There's a giant asteroid somewhere out in the solar system, and it hurled a big rock at Earth.
The evidence for this mystery space rock comes from a diamond-studded meteor that exploded over Sudan in 2008. NASA had spotted the 9-ton (8,200 kilograms), 13-foot (4 meters) meteor heading toward the planet well before impact, and researchers showed up in the Sudanese desert to collect an unusually rich haul of remains. Now, a new study of one of those meteorites suggests that the meteor may have broken off of a giant asteroid — one more or less the size of the dwarf planet Ceres, the largest object in the asteroid belt — that formed in the presence of water under intermediate temperatures and pressures.
The mineral makeup of these space rocks offers clues about the "parent asteroid" that birthed a given meteor, researchers said in a statement.
The evidence for this mystery space rock comes from a diamond-studded meteor that exploded over Sudan in 2008. NASA had spotted the 9-ton (8,200 kilograms), 13-foot (4 meters) meteor heading toward the planet well before impact, and researchers showed up in the Sudanese desert to collect an unusually rich haul of remains. Now, a new study of one of those meteorites suggests that the meteor may have broken off of a giant asteroid — one more or less the size of the dwarf planet Ceres, the largest object in the asteroid belt — that formed in the presence of water under intermediate temperatures and pressures.
The mineral makeup of these space rocks offers clues about the "parent asteroid" that birthed a given meteor, researchers said in a statement.
De Beers (Score:2, Funny)
De Beers has claimed ownership of the entire asteroid, because diamonds in space are forever.
Re: De Beers (Score:1)
Misleading summary (Score:1)
Re:Misleading summary (Score:5, Funny)
or was ejaculated from the solar system early in it's history.
Since then it's avoided this by thinking about baseball.
Re: (Score:2)
Talk about getting your rocks off.
I don't know about that theory... (Score:2)
...it's rather hard to swallow.
Re: (Score:1)
The word you were looking for was "ejected". If something ejaculated from the solar system, then I think we must worry that it might be still be around and aimed at Earth sometime in our future. Maybe this would be the prophesied End-O-Times, and G-d is a funny G-d.
13 feet is far from any kind of planet (Score:2)
More like a minivan.
Re: (Score:3)
That's the description of the meteor, not the dwarf planet.
errrr... asteroid size of dwarf planet? (Score:4, Informative)
Why couldn't it have been a dwarf planet then?
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They still want to avoid talking about the mistake they made about Pluto's re-classification.
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yes, as NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine said:
âoeI am here to tell you, as the NASA administrator, I believe Pluto is a planet. Some people have argued that in order to be a planet you have to clear your orbit around the sun. If thatâ(TM)s the definition weâ(TM)re going to use then you could undercut all the planetsâ"theyâ(TM)re all dwarf planetsâ"because there isnâ(TM)t a planet that clears its entire orbit around the sun.â
âoeI think itâ(TM)s a sloppy de
Re: errrr... asteroid size of dwarf planet? (Score:2)
No, just an iDiot with his iDevice that got his staight ASCII quotes amputated because a woke designer felt uneasy about straight quotes.
Re: (Score:2)
Sure. Blame the up-to-date device that follows proper syntax instead of blaming Slashdot which still isn't compatible with UTF-8 in 2020.
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Ceres also is designated a dwarf planet as of 2006 besides being an asteroid. Those IAU retards need to listen to real astronomers before coming up with their vague rubbish definitions; Pluto of course is a planet.
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The nature of the fragment tends to define the source. The thing to watch out for, it might have come from one from another solar system, not even a straight path, caught up in all sorts of motion changing fly bys. Considering numbers, one possible source in our orbit and trillions of possible sources from other suns orbits.
An Asteroid... (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
We're pretty good at detecting Ceres-sized objects even as far out as Pluto, so it's very unlikely there's an undetected Ceres-sized object in the asteroid belt.
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yes, this 10-meter class object was found by chance. Ceres has a 1000-km diameter, objects that size are 6 orders of magnitude easier to find.
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Talk about burying the lede... (Score:2)
”There's a giant asteroid somewhere out in the solar system, and it hurled a big rock at Earth”
Personally, I would’ve focused more on the fact that it’s apparently both sentient and angry with us.
Obligatory Starship Troopers (Score:2)
"The Bug sent another meteor our way, but this time we're ready. Planetary defenses are better than ever thanks to SpaceX. Klendathu, source of the bug meteor attacks, orbits a twin star system whose brutal gravitational forces produce an unlimited supply of bug meteorites in the form of this asteroid belt. To ensure the safety of our solar system, Klendathu must be eliminated."
Planet 9 (Score:1)
If the asteroid does/did exist and is so large, is there a way to determine if it is the mysterious "Planet 9" that may have affected the gravity of other objects?
What can break a dwarf planet? (Score:2)
An even bigger dwarf planet?
i ordered it (Score:1)
An unpopular opinion (Score:2)
Hope it hits on December 31st (Score:1)
8200kg != 9 tonne (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
USA is crazy. Note that they do not use metric tonnes but rather their own definition which often is called an imperial ton. It is 2000 pounds or about 0.907 metric tonnes.
Re: (Score:2)
It isn't even an Imperial ton, which is 2,240 pounds, or 20 x 1cwt, where 1cwt (hundredweight) is 112 pounds.
not to worry (Score:1)
NASA had spotted the 9-ton (8,200 kilograms),
When Americans mess up with their funky units, it usually crashes into Mars. Earth should be safe from this one.
And it has declared war! (Score:2)