Two giant red asteroids discovered in the main asteroid belt

Two giant red asteroids discovered in the main asteroid belt
Two giant red asteroids discovered in the main asteroid belt
Anonim

The new study, published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, details the discovery of two unusually red asteroids. They are located between Mars and Jupiter, in the main asteroid belt located there.

The finds were named 203 Pompeja and 269 Justitia. It is important to note that these red asteroids resemble trans-Neptunian objects, that is, objects located farther than Neptune - the farthest planet from the Sun (not counting the dwarf planet Pluto). This could mean that they formed in a distant part of the solar system, in the Kuiper belt, and then "went" inward when the solar system was still young.

If scientists' assumptions about the movement of asteroids are confirmed, they will be able to find out how chaotic conditions in space were in the past and how materials from different parts of the solar system sometimes mixed.

Scientists have already established that the diameter of the asteroid Pompey is 110 km, and Justitia is only half the size. Both are unusually red, meaning they reflect waves corresponding to the wavelength of the red portion of the spectrum. They are even redder than D-type asteroids, which were previously considered the most "colorful" objects in the asteroid belt.

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