Tag Archives: asteroids

Asteroids: Death, or Life?

Just hitching a ride Most people don’t think of asteroids as the bringer of life to Earth. Actually, for many, it’s the exact opposite. When someone says asteroids many people automatically think about mass extinctions, specifically the extinction of the dinosaurs (which was caused by a large asteroid). However, there is a theory called panspermia which […] Continue reading

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Meteorite Chemicals Form Building Blocks of Life

A research team at the Tuscia University in Italy has released a study suggesting that the kick-starter for early life may have hitched a ride to earth on the backs of meteorites. Formaldehyde, an organic compound that is posited as the key building block for early microbial life, is known to exist in the centers […] Continue reading

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The Mystery of the Mass Extinction

Before reading the section in Chapter 12 of the textbook on cosmic collisions (Section 12.4), I had not realized that there exists some controversy as to whether or not an impact killed the dinosaurs. I had always been taught that an asteroid hitting the Earth resulted in the mass extinction and had never considered that […] Continue reading

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The K-T Extinction: Asteroids and Atmospheres

Let’s talk about the dinosaurs. Everyone has heard the story: Dinosaurs roamed the Earth ages ago until an asteroid hit and caused all of them to go extinct. There was a huge amount of dust thrown up into the atmosphere which blocked out the Sun and caused plants to die. This set off a chain […] Continue reading

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The Solar System: An Overview

This year I learned details about the Solar System that I did not even know existed.  Before astronomy this year, I did not know about the Kuiper Belt.  I thought we only had the Asteroid Belt.  I knew that comets and asteroids were different– but I was not sure what the difference was.  Now I […] Continue reading

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Asteroids and Orbital Resonance

Why is there an asteroid belt in our solar system, and why is it located where it is? The main asteroid belt is located between Mars and Jupiter, and it was formed by an effect called orbital resonance. Orbital resonance occurs when the gravity fields of two objects align. Because Jupiter was so large during … Continue reading Asteroids and Orbital Resonance Continue reading

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Ceres, the Inner Solar System Dwarf Planet

Ceres was discovered in 1801 and is the largest object in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.  It was originally classified as a planet, but has since been demoted to a dwarf planet.  It is thought to have an icy mantle and a rocky core with the possibility of a subsurface ocean and thin atmosphere. […] Continue reading

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Asteroid Mining

There are millions of asteroids in our solar system, and they are more valuable than most people think. When I thought of asteroids in the past, I thought of grey rocks that were uninteresting and dull. However, after learning about asteroid mining and the potential benefits asteroids could provide Earth, I re-evaluated my standpoint. It… Continue reading

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Orbital Resonance and the Asteroid Belt

Why is it that all of the matter in the inner solar system accreted to form planets, while in between Mars and Jupiter there is still a bunch of stuff […] Continue reading

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We Are The Aliens

We have always questioned if Earth is the only planet capable of sustaining life in the universe and whether one day, we will get to meet real life extraterrestrials. Well, if new evidence is to be believed, all we might have to do to look at aliens is go look at a mirror. Researchers at […] Continue reading

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