What are Asteroids Universe
4.6 billion years ago, our Solar System formed from a collection
of gas and dust surrounding our nascent Sun. While much of the gas and
dust in this protoplanetary disk coalesced to form the planets, some of the debris was left over.
Some of debris was shattered remnants of planetesimals – bodies within the young Sun’s solar nebula that never grew large enough to become planets, and scientists theorize that large collisions in the early, chaotic Solar System pulverized these planetesimals into smaller pieces. Other debris never came together due to the massive gravitational pull from Jupiter.
These rocky remnants are now the asteroids that travel about our Solar System. Since these “leftovers” contain clues about the early days of our Solar System, scientists are eager to study them.
