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Asteroids, meteors, and meteorites
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| astroniki | Date: Friday, 03.01.2014, 19:51 | Message # 136 |
 Space Pilot
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Poland
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| The Quadrantids are flying, here's a shot from just after dusk:
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| midtskogen | Date: Friday, 17.01.2014, 08:22 | Message # 137 |
 Star Engineer
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Norway
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| First properly clear night in four weeks and I caught a couple of fireballs, only 22 minutes apart:
Video: http://norskmeteornettverk.no/bilder/2014/meteorer-20140112.mp4Added (17.01.2014, 11:22)
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Asteroid mining likely not worthwhile.
NIL DIFFICILE VOLENTI
Edited by midtskogen - Monday, 13.01.2014, 09:22 |
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| DIS7RICT | Date: Tuesday, 21.01.2014, 14:04 | Message # 138 |
 Space Pilot
Group: Users
Australia
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| What do you guys think of the rock that appeared out of nowhere on Mars, caught on one of Opportunity's camera.
My theory is that it's probably just a piece of a small meteorite that impacted close by that either broke off from a collision between two larger asteroids, or from ejecta on an outer solar system moon (impact?) judging from the sulfur and magnesium and by some one in a billion (billion billion?) chance just happened to land and then roll to that spot. This is just a repost of what I commented on the article.
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There'll be another time...
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| midtskogen | Date: Tuesday, 21.01.2014, 15:12 | Message # 139 |
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Star Engineer
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Norway
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| The trouble with that theory is that it's very unlikely. Even in space with no atmospheric protection from meteorites the chances of a close encounter with something of that size is very very small even after many years.
NIL DIFFICILE VOLENTI
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| DIS7RICT | Date: Tuesday, 21.01.2014, 15:25 | Message # 140 |
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Space Pilot
Group: Users
Australia
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| I'm aware of that and there's a good chance it didn't come from Mars since the composition is very different from anything they've ever found on the surface.
Just because it's unlikely it doesn't mean it can't happen, and that it didn't or never will happen. That's my theory until there's a better one. I don't think it was flipped out from the wheels which is one of their theories, there's almost no deep sand in that area and even if it did somehow it's still highly possible that it's from a meteorite that struck a while ago. If it wasn't from a meteorite that's even more interesting, we'll have some serious explaining to do with the composition.
As I said in the article, I'd gladly accept accept a crazier explanation.
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There'll be another time...
Edited by DIS7RICT - Tuesday, 21.01.2014, 15:34 |
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| Watsisname | Date: Tuesday, 21.01.2014, 17:25 | Message # 141 |
 Galaxy Architect
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United States
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| Is the composition consistent with any known class of meteorite or other celestial body? Is high sulfur and a factor of 2 difference in manganese truly significant, incompatible with Martian petrology? Although the hypothesis that this rock is of non-Martian origin is a working one, I don't think that conclusion follows from these observations quite so easily. 
Opportunity is currently exploring the rim of Endeavour Crater, where a variety of new and interesting formations are exposed. To find a strange rock like this might actually be expected given the location. The rock could literally have just rolled down from the hillside between those two photos, as some have suggested. And I'm certainly no expert on how the rovers wheels interact with terrain, but I don't think there has to be deep sand for a rock to be kicked off to the side by them. Those wheels turn very slowly, but can produce a fair amount of pressure if caught up on a loose piece of material.
The rock could also be a recent piece of ejecta -- subsurface material thrown out from an impact that occurred nearby. There are a lot of working hypotheses to consider here and I don't think we should favor any particular one at this time.
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| DIS7RICT | Date: Tuesday, 21.01.2014, 19:02 | Message # 142 |
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Space Pilot
Group: Users
Australia
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| If further down the track -say a years time- there isn't any evidence of rocks with similar composition then we can start to suspect it's of non Martian origin, if there is then we'll still have to find out what caused them which is another mystery in itself. But until then it's a waiting game. All we can do from here with the limited information we have is guess.
However, if it was kicked up by a wheel there should/may be photo evidence of that location and the rock before Opportunity reached it's current location. Someone should really check for that.
PC: Core i7 3770K 3.5GHz, 8GB RAM, GTX670 2GB, Win 7 64-bit
There'll be another time...
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| HarbingerDawn | Date: Thursday, 23.01.2014, 00:20 | Message # 143 |
 Cosmic Curator
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United States
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| Asteroid Lutetia in natural color
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| DIS7RICT | Date: Thursday, 23.01.2014, 20:58 | Message # 144 |
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Space Pilot
Group: Users
Australia
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| That looks brilliant. Can't wait until Rosetta lands on 67P.
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There'll be another time...
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| DIS7RICT | Date: Friday, 24.01.2014, 10:46 | Message # 145 |
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Space Pilot
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Australia
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| Heard about that yesterday, I didn't expect Ceres to have water.
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| HarbingerDawn | Date: Friday, 24.01.2014, 12:28 | Message # 146 |
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Cosmic Curator
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| Quote DIS7RICT (  ) I didn't expect Ceres to have water
It's an ice world, a significant portion of its interior is probably composed of water ice. Also, we've known for a long time that there were hydrated minerals on its surface, and other evidence of near-surface ice has also existed.
Go into SE and read the wiki entry for Ceres, especially the last paragraph if you don't want to read the whole thing.
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| neutronium76 | Date: Friday, 24.01.2014, 13:11 | Message # 147 |
 World Builder
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Greece
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| Quote HarbingerDawn ( ) is probably composed of water ice
Lets not jump into conclusions. Water is probably very rare in space. That is why organic life as we know it is also non existent outside earth up to now. These jet streams are probably from other volatile elements such as Nitrogen, or less likely hydrogen or helium. Complex chemicals such as Ammonia, Nitrogen compounds, CO2/CO and water are probably less likely to be found there.
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| DIS7RICT | Date: Friday, 24.01.2014, 13:24 | Message # 148 |
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Space Pilot
Group: Users
Australia
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| Quote HarbingerDawn ( ) It's an ice world
That makes sense. I would have expected it if I had known that. Ceres is the only planet I haven't read up about, I think it's time to study.
Quote neutronium76 ( ) Water is probably very rare in space. That is why organic life as we know it is also non existent
Let's not jump to conclusions. There's more than one planetary system in the Universe. We have barely studied our own, we still have no idea if there is other organic life in the Solar system, or any good idea of the abundance of water in our or other systems.
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There'll be another time...
Edited by DIS7RICT - Friday, 24.01.2014, 14:20 |
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| midtskogen | Date: Friday, 24.01.2014, 14:18 | Message # 149 |
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Star Engineer
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Norway
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| Quote neutronium76 ( ) Water is probably very rare in space
Why do you say that? Meteorites may contain quite a lot of water, or have minerals modified by water, direct proof that many asteroids contain significant amounts of water.
NIL DIFFICILE VOLENTI
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| HarbingerDawn | Date: Friday, 24.01.2014, 16:03 | Message # 150 |
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Cosmic Curator
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United States
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| Quote neutronium76 ( ) Water is probably very rare in space
 You do realize that the reason we know it's water vapor on Ceres is because they use spectrometers to detect the composition? And you do realize that water is the single most abundant compound and second most abundant molecule in the universe, and that the majority of objects in the solar system are composed largely of water ice? Water is not rare; it is extremely common. It is more common in non-gas worlds than any other single substance.
Forgive me, but with as much experience as you have with SE and discussing and learning about astronomy, I find it almost impossible to believe that you didn't know that already.
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