The actual mechanism causing asteroids to disrupt is still unknown but some obvious scenarios such as tidal forces caused by the Sun and direct sublimation of silicates have been ruled out. One of the remaining scenarios is that volatiles inside the asteroid sublimate at moderate temperatures and create enough pressure to blow up the body. A similar process on a smaller scale called spalling can also break up surface rocks. Credit: Lauri Voutilainen
For 2 decades it was thought that most near-Earth objects (NEOs)—asteroids and comets that may pose a hazard to life on Earth—end their existence in a dramatic final plunge into the Sun. A new study finds instead that most of those objects are destroyed much farther from the Sun than previously thought...
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