Asteroids Research Paper

History of Asteroids Asteroids have been a part of our solar system ever since its formation billion of years ago. Asteroids have a distinct formation, which gives each one its own physical characteristics that help researchers to classify these asteroids, and sometimes, depending on the size, they are given a name at the time they are discovered. Asteroids can also have a huge impact on Earth; some are capable of even causing a global disaster. Asteroids are said to be leftover particles from when the solar system was formed. Early on, the beginning of Jupiter prevented any planetary bodies from forming in the gap between Mars and Jupiter, causing the small objects that were there to collide with each other and fragment into the asteroids seen today (Space.com). In the 1800's, Giuseppe Piazzi discovered what he thought to be a new planet. He named the asteroid Ceres and by the 19th century, there were several smaller bodies found and that were named; including Pallas, Vesta, and Juno. …show more content…
Bodies that form closer to the sun tend to be made up of a harder material. Nearly all asteroids are irregular in shape and heavily blemished by the impacts of craters. There are only a handful of asteroids that are large enough to have a strong enough gravity to pull them into spherical shapes (www.scienceclarified.com). Some other ways of classifying asteroids is by the type of asteroid it is. The majority of asteroids that have been discovered are solid; however, there are some known as rubble piles. A rubble pile is where loose pieces of rock are held together by the force of gravity. There also been many discoveries of asteroids that are called doubles, this means that they are two asteroids that are similar in size that have drifted together and now orbit around each other as they orbit around the sun