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    planetesimals tagged posts

    Where did Earth’s Water come from? Not Melted Meteorites, according to scientists

    March 16, 2023, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    The dashed white line in this illustration shows the boundary between the inner solar system and outer solar system, with the asteroid belt positioned roughly in between Mars and Jupiter. A bubble near the top of the image shows water molecules attached to a rocky fragment, demonstrating the kind of object that could have carried water to Earth. Credit: Jack Cook/Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Click image to download hi-res version.

    Water makes up 71% of Earth’s surface, but no one knows how or when such massive quantities of water arrived on Earth.

    A new study published in the journal Nature brings scientists one step closer to answering that question...

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    Unknown Class of Water-Rich Asteroids Identified

    February 22, 2023, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Unknown class of water-rich asteroids identified
    Implantation of planetesimals into the asteroid belt during the planets’ growth and dynamical evolution. Credit: Nature Astronomy (2023). DOI: 10.1038/s41550-023-01898-x

    New astronomical measurements in the infrared range have led to the identification of a heretofore unknown class of asteroids. An international research team including geoscientists from Heidelberg University has succeeded in characterizing these small planets using infrared spectroscopy.

    They are located in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter and are—similar to the dwarf planet Ceres—rich in water. According to computer models, complex dynamic processes shifted these asteroids from the outer regions of our solar system into today’s asteroid belt shortly after their creation.

    With an equatorial diame...

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    Cosmic History can explain the Properties of Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars

    December 30, 2021, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    This is the sharpest image ever taken by ALMA — sharper than is routinely achieved in visible light with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. It shows the protoplanetary disc surrounding the young star HL Tauri. These new ALMA observations reveal substructures within the disc that have never been seen before and even show the possible positions of planets forming in the dark patches within the system. Credit: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)

    Astronomers have managed to link the properties of the inner planets of our solar system with our cosmic history: with the emergence of ring structures in the swirling disk of gas and dust in which these planets were formed...

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    The case of the Missing Mantle: How impact debris may have disappeared from the solar system

    September 3, 2021, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Debris from planet-forming collisions can range from solid materials to gases. The work from Gabriel & Allen-Sutter (2021) suggests large collisions form predominantly gas, leaving behind little trace in the current solar system. Illustration credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

    In the early solar system, terrestrial planets like Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars are thought to have formed from planetesimals, small early planets. These early planets grew over time, through collisions and mergers, to make them the size they are today.

    The material released from these violent collisions is commonly thought to have escaped and orbited around the sun, bombarding the growing planets and altering the composition of the asteroid belt...

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