Curtin University
Asteroid Itokawa, according to new studies says that this asteroid is as old as the Solar System itself.
Nationalgeographic.co.id—New research led by Curtin University examines the durability and age of ancient asteroids made of rocky debris and dust. They reveal significant findings that could contribute to potentially saving the planet if an asteroid were to hurtle toward Earth.
The international team studied three tiny dust particles collected from the surface of the 500-meter-long asteroid debris pile, Itokawa, which was returned to Earth by the probe. Hayabusa 1 Japanese Space Agency.
The study results show asteroid Itokawa which is 2 million kilometers from Earth and about the size of the Sydney Harbor Bridge, is tough to destroy and withstands impacts.
Itokawa, is a near-Earth asteroid that is shaped like a bean. Most of it consists of the minerals olivine and pyroxene, a mineral composition similar to that of the class of rocky meteorites that have pelted Earth in the past.
The Hayabusa mission confirmed the asteroid and also determined that Itokawa is a binary contact asteroid formed by two or more small asteroids that attract and collide with each other. Images from Hayabusa show very few craters, but a rough surface with some cliffs. The cliff is described by the mission members as ruins. This means that Itokawa is not a rock monolith but rather a collection of ruins formed from fragments that have been linked together over a long period of time.
Lead author Professor Fred Jourdan, Director of the Western Australia Argon Isotope Facility, part of the John de Laeter Center and School of Earth and Planetary Sciences, said the team also found Itokawa to be nearly as old as the Solar System itself.
“Unlike monolithic asteroids, Itokawa is not a single chunk of rock, but belongs to the debris pile family which means it is made entirely of boulders and loose rock, with nearly half of it being empty space,” Professor Jourdan said. “The survival time of a monolithic asteroid the size of Itokawa is estimated to be only a few hundred thousand years across asteroid belt.”
“The big impact that destroyed the monolithic parent asteroid Itokawa and formed Itokawa occurred at least 4.2 billion years ago. The very long survival time for an asteroid the size of Itokawa is associated with the shock-absorbing properties of the debris pile material,” added Prof Jourdan. “In short, we found that Itokawa is like a giant space bearing, and it is very difficult to destroy.”
Curtin’s team used two complementary techniques to analyze three dust particles. The first is called Electron Backscattered Diffraction and can measure whether a rock has been shocked by a meteor impact or not. A second method – argon-argon dating – is used to determine the age of an asteroid impact.
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Co-author Associate Professor Nick Timms, also of Curtin’s School of Earth and Planetary Sciences, said the durability of a debris pile asteroid was previously unknown, compromising the ability to devise a defensive strategy if one were to hurtle toward Earth.
“We set out to answer whether asteroid debris is immune to shocks or whether they fragment at the slightest impact,” said Associate Professor Timms.
“Now that we have found that they can survive in the solar system for most of its history, they must be more abundant in the asteroid belt than previously thought. So there’s more chance that if a large asteroid hurtles towards Earth, it will become a pile of debris.”
Timms continued his explanation, “The good news is that we can also use this information to our advantage – if an asteroid is detected too late for kinetic boost, we can potentially use a more aggressive approach such as using shock waves from a nearby nuclear explosion to push asteroid debris out of the way.” path without destroying it.”
The results of this research have been published in the journal PNAS on January 23, 2023 under the title “Rubble pile asteroids are forever.”
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