Not all asteroids are planet-killers; some are enormous while the majority are small. What are the solar system's largest and smallest asteroids, then?
Asteroids frequently fly through our solar system and occasionally collide with planets, including Earth. In order to deflect a space rock similar to the one that killed out the dinosaurs, NASA performed the DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) test in the interest of planetary defence (or the one Bruce Willis blew up at the end of the movie Armageddon).
Yet, not all asteroids pose a threat to the world. ... ......... So, what are the largest and tiniest asteroids on record in the solar system?
Ceres, which is almost 590 miles (950 kilometres) across and roughly one-quarter the size of the moon, is the largest asteroid in the solar system. The tiniest asteroid is more difficult to pin down; the smallest asteroid officially identified by NASA(opens in new tab), known as asteroid 2015 TC25, is 6 feet (2 metres) diameter. According to certain definitions, asteroids must be at least 3 feet (1 m) in diameter, but not all scientists concur with this requirement.
German astronomer William Herschel(opens in new tab) is thought to have first used the term "asteroid" in 1802. Nevertheless, it turns out that this word, which in Greek means "star-like," is inaccurate. Asteroids are tiny, stony things that contain dust, ice, and occasionally metal rather than being incandescent balls of plasma. According to Simone Marchi, an astronomer at the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado, "they're obviously nothing to do with stars." Simone Marchi was quoted by Live Science as saying this. "So, to begin with, it's kind of a nebulous phrase and concept."
A dense dust cloud that engulfed the sun during the early stages of the solar system is thought to have helped asteroids originate. it to be a, a. and....... when.. A couple of these bodies eventually accumulated enough mass to develop into planets. The remainder, however, was "like crumbs on a table," Marchi remarked. A few of these "crumbs" developed into asteroids.
Currently, most asteroids in the solar system are found in the asteroid belt, a 140 million-mile-wide (225 million km) ring of rocks and dust rotating in the region between Mars and Jupiter. Thus far, scientists have documented around a million of these items. And millions more possibly exist, depending on how they are counted.
With a telescope, Ceres is simple to find because it is the largest known asteroid. In 1801, it became the first known object in the asteroid belt, NASA reported (opens in new tab). The massive space rock, which has a thin atmosphere and is more spherical than other asteroids, was classified as a dwarf planet in 2006, the same classification as Pluto. (Yet, according to NASA, Pluto is larger and 14 times more massive than Ceres, with a diameter of 1,473 miles (2,370 km)) Based on its size and structure, experts believe that Ceres could tell us a lot about how planets develop (opens in new tab). If Ceres is excluded because it is a dwarf planet, Vesta, at 326 miles, would be the largest asteroid.
The smallest asteroid, though, is up for discussion. According to astronomer Yan Fernandez(opens in new tab) of the University of Central Florida, "there is no official cutoff, so various people have different notions about what constitutes as an asteroid."
Telescopes have spotted asteroids as small as 3 feet across, and there are millions of smaller objects orbiting in the asteroid belt. But, according to NASA, objects this small often burn up if they enter the planet's relatively thick atmosphere, like Earth (opens in new tab). According to this standard, they fall within the category of meteoroids, which are tiny pieces of space junk that transform into meteors as they streak across the sky (and meteorites if they land on a planet's surface).
Asteroids don't always stay the same size, which just adds to the confusion. According to Fernandez, there are various ways for asteroids to lose their contents. As they move towards the sun, some shatter due to temperature stress. Others run into each other, shattering pieces of rock in the process. Still others start to spin on their axis and eventually spin so quickly that some of their dust escapes into space.
Asteroid fragments from bigger asteroids can occasionally be classified as asteroids in their own right, but more frequently they are classified as meteoroids or just space dust. What distinguishes an asteroid from a meteoroid, therefore, according to experts? According to Marchi, a rocky object is an asteroid as long as it is in outer space; it only transforms into a meteoroid when it enters a planet's atmosphere.
It is a matter of observation, according to Fernandez. He answered, "I would include that as another asteroid in the asteroid pile if you can find it with a telescope...watch it orbit and whatnot. Yet, that is only my opinion, right?
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