Asteroids: What Are They? (An in Depth Analysis)

in steemstem •  7 years ago 

I bet you all have heard about Asteroids since school and more specifically you learned about them as the weapon that obliterate completely the dinosaurs, but there's more to it and we 'll gonna find out together in this post! 

Let's Start!

Origin & Types


Asteroids are rocky irregularly shaped leftovers of the early formation of our solar system so in a way you can say they are ancient stones of different shape and metrics that are smaller than our moon. Even if we unite every asteroid it will still be the same size and maybe lower than our moon.

Basically, according to NASA there are 3 different composition classes of Asteroids:

  • C- ( clay & silicate rocks)
  • S- ( silicate rocks & iron)
  • M- (metallic nickel iron)

The ''how'' the asteroids are gonna end up and form with these materials is related to the distance they have from sun.

Asteroid Belt & More


So most of the Asteroids (about some millions of them) orbit between Jupiter and Mars with the biggest one being the Ceres that is also considered as a dwarf planet and the smallest ones can reach to 1km diameter. Although, the asteroids are not considered planets except our friend Ceres that is one of a kind, a lot of them have their own small moon or even 2!

Asteroids have no atmosphere and as you guessed no life and NASA have done some mission to explore and learn more about the origin and any secret the Asteroids may hide, with one mission even landing a spacecraft on an Asteroid!

In case you are wondering why we should spend money to learn more about Asteroids, i will tell you that except that fact that we earn valuable info about the creation of our solar system and in general universe and discovering what really happened with the dinosaurs and if there chances of that happening again, the most crucial thing in my opinion is the mining. Yes you heard it, not Bitcoin mining but Asteroid mining! As i mentioned before asteroids hide some useful materials like iron and why not earn free iron from space instead of excavating our Earth?

i tried to keep it as simple as i could and i hope you all learned something new today. For more you can check the links below!

images and gifs 1 2 3
sources
https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/asteroids/indepth
https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/asteroids/faq
https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/asteroids/needtoknow
https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/asteroids


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asteroids =" A" stands for quality & steroids !? heh

hahaha that's why they try to mine them :p

My friend has spoke about asteroid mining. He says the first trillionaire will be made from this. :D

this has extreme potentials, then the issue would be which countries takes what :P how they divide space :p

Oh god. World War Space...lol

Can't wait for the Osiris-Rex satellite to finally reach the asteroid and see what they can find inside!

5 more years till we take the sample! :P

Όντως κάτι μάθαμε και σήμερα...Καλή συνέχεια!

Oh! My trolls travelled through the asteroid belt before getting to Jupiter.

Do you think we could mine asteroidcoins and not just iron? :P

then they can tell us which asteroid has promise! eventually either iron or asteroidcoins the bottom line is money :P even if it is ironcoin!

I think that Nasa is about to discover your talent and ask you to join them in their research programms :P
Well done, great post @filotasriza3!!

yes that 100% sure, to clean for those researching :P

You know, I can't believe many people are still confused about the differences between asteroids, comets and meteors. There's the whole asteroid belt, just to solidify it.

I have no doubt that asteroid mining is what we're gearing towards. Once we achieve interstellar travel, that has got to be the most viable option in terms of gathering resources. They're so fascinating because they're a source of both life and destruction.

i just think they don't care to bother learn the difference :P My only issue or question would be how they divide who takes what for the mining, that would be a really interesting topic, even now we still have issues with our boundaries and our claims imagine the same for space :P

Well, I guess who mines it would have the rights. There are so many asteroids to choose from, I would be remiss if there would be conflict in terms of who has what territory. In any case, the future belongs to corporations anyway, so it's all a matter of corporate competition.

and those corporations have power over the politicians and state and then the problem starts for everyone :p

Dystopic future, anyone? :D