Asteroids

        Did you know... Asteroids are chunks of rock and metal that tumble through space in orbits and are the largest space rocks. Ceres is the largest asteroid, about 600 miles across. Ceres was discovered by an Italian astronomer Giuseppe Piazzi  in 1887. Pallas and Vesta come next in size. Juno was the third asteroid discovered by K.Harding in 1804. 

    Asteroids orbit through outer space in the Asteroid Belt between Mars and Jupiter. They rarely leave their orbit unless they are hit and are forced to spin out of control and out of their orbit. The asteroid belt is 100-mile-wide band of stone and rocks. It is mostly empty space.  

          The best estimate is that there are 1,500-2,000 asteroids one and one-half mile in diameter or larger. Under extreme conditions, these are candidates for collision with earth. One suspected crater scientists are studying is the site of  Everglades National Park. This impact made a crater the size of  Connecticut. WOW!!  An asteroid, part stone and part metal slammed into the area , then covered by 600 feet of ocean , and punched a hole in the seabed, fracturing the rock. 

        Another interesting asteroid or comet collision is believed to happen sixty five million years ago.  Earth was a different place from what it is today.  No humans lived, but dinosaurs roamed freely.  Then  something extraordinary happened. After 144 million years the dinosaurs  disappeared. For years this baffled scientist. Years of  pondering  the mystery provided no satisfactory answer. And then on  January 4, 1980 , Luis Alvarez, a scientist at the University of California, appeared at a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in San Francisco. Luis Alvarez knew what happened  to the dinosaurs.

            In these paragraphs you have learned the best facts about asteroids. Click on the links above to learn more about the different space rocks!!                                  

  COME BACK SOON!!