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Mars Base

Battered Asteroid Lutetia a Rare Relic of Earth's Birth | Asteroids & Comets | Earth Fo... - 0 views

www.space.com/eroid-lutetia-earth-birth.html

scibyte21 Lutetia

shared by Mars Base on 11 Nov 11 - No Cached
  • The oddball asteroid Lutetia is a rocky remnant of the material that formed Earth, Venus and Mercury about 4.5 billion years ago, a new study suggests
  • Its composition suggests it likely formed close to the sun in the same cloud of material that eventually coalesced into the inner solar system's rocky planets.
  • then it was booted out to its current location in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, most likely after a run-in with a young planet
  • ...5 more annotations...
  • Lutetia, which is about 62 miles (100 kilometers) across
  • Lutetia's spectrum matched that of one particular class of meteorite called enstatite chondrites, which are known to date from the early solar system
  • Enstatite chondrites are thought to have formed close to the sun and to have served as building blocks for the rocky planets, especially Earth, Venus and Mercury, researchers said.
  • The implication is that Lutetia also originated close to the sun, not out in the main asteroid belt where it currently sits
  • Lutetia's birthplace makes the space rock pretty special. Astronomers have estimated that just 2 percent of the bodies that formed where it likely did ended up in the main asteroid belt.
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