The Solar System (Asteroid Belt and Ceres)

Location of the Inner Planets,
the Asteroid Belt, and Jupiter.
Credits: ICO Global

     The asteroid belt is a fascinating rocky place which separates the inner rocky planets from the outer icy, gaseous planets. As the belt, people may see movies where spacecrafts maneuver slowly and cautiously around rocks that are closely packed together, but actually, the rocks are spread really apart, at about 100,000 miles each. All there is, are the interplanetary dusts, which is the main conflict for spacecrafts travelling through the region. Many asteroids in the belt are relatively small, but some are thousands of feet wide. Most of the asteroids are also irregular and have pits and craters. These asteroids formed when debris of left over rocks got pulled together into a belt by the gravitational pull of Jupiter, and the sun, thus the debris smashed into each other and formed the asteroids. From a recent study, NASA concludes that the mass of all the celestial bodies in the asteroid belt is smaller than the moon.

Description of the Grand Tack Theory.
Credits: Science News

      No one really is sure how the asteroid belt was formed, but there is a theory (like the Big Bang theory), and its the Grand Tack Theory. The Grand Tack theory is events of the movements of Jupiter and Saturn, and the processes that brought the asteroid belt. Upon the forming of Jupiter, the planet got caught by the gases that was revolving around the sun (remember, upon the forming of our sun was a nebula, many gases were present at the time), thus the planet started to zoom closer to the sun. It is said that Saturn saved Jupiter from getting swallowed by the sun, when Jupiter reversed its direction at about the distance of present Mars today. From then on, other planets began to form, and because of Jupiter's gravity, the rocks in the asteroid belt were kept from forming another celestial body, and as Jupiter crossed the rocky belt, it pushed the rocks here and there, and also deflected some ice at the asteroids, thus the asteroids have properties of inner and outer planets. However, this movement of Jupiter had also made Mars smaller than it could have been, the gravity of Jupiter's and the large planet's movement, it scattered and pulled away rocks from the little red planet, thus it formed as a pretty small celestial planet.

Rotation of Ceres.
Credits: NASA/Dawn

Bright Spots on Ceres.
Credits: NASA/Dawn

       The smallest of all known dwarf planets, but the biggest celestial body in the asteroid belt, Ceres, takes up about a third of the mass of the asteroid belt. Unlike many objects in the belt, Ceres is spherical, thanks to its size and gravity. Discovered on January 1, 1801, by Sicilian astronomer Piazzi, Ceres is named after the Roman goddess of agriculture, and was named a planet, until more objects in the asteroid belt were discovered, it was demoted to an asteroid, but was promoted to dwarf planet, when Pluto was classified as a dwarf planet. Recent discoveries made by NASA spacecraft, Dawn, it has captured what are known as 'bright spots' on the body of rock. These bright spots may be water, or salt, meaning that there may be internal activities inside the planet pushing these materials onto the surface. Scientists hypothesize that water is under the crust of the planet, as the mantle of the planet, protecting a small rocky core inside. From observatories back on Earth, plumes of water are seen escaping the planet at about a rate of 13 pounds per second. From these data, scientists now believe that Ceres once may have had an atmosphere, and had liquid water that roamed its surface. All it means, is that NASA has to send another probe to this fascinating world.

Snowman Craters (Vesta's northern hemisphere)
Credits; NASA/Dawn

Asteroid Vesta.
Credits: NASA/Dawn

Vesta, the second largest dwarf planet in the asteroid belt, is also the brightest asteroid in the night sky. Founded on the night of March 29th, 1807, by Heinrich Olber, an asteroid hunter, he proudly named the celestial body after the Roman goddess of hearth, the sister of Ceres. Being a little spherical, or rather a squashed sphere,ground observations give proof that Vesta has basaltic regions, meaning that lava once flowed on the surface. Having a surface like the Moon, Vesta, from observations from Hubble, has a large crater on its south pole. Vesta encountered a massive crash a billion years ago, tossing its pieces all over the inner solar system, some even in Earth! Vesta has a crust of cooled lava, over a rocky mantle, with an iron and nickel core, and this leads to questioning whether Vesta should be named a protoplanet, rather than an asteroid. In the early life of Vesta, the core accreted rapidly, along with the first basaltic layer, and if Jupiter haven't messed the asteroid belt up, it is hypothesized that Vesta may have become a planet. When the NASA spacecraft Dawn reached Vesta, a surprising amount of Hydrogen was found on the the celestial body, along with bright reflective materials that may have been left from its birth. A massive mountain looms in Vesta's southern pole, with a height of 20 kilometers, making it almost the height of Olympus Mons, which has a height of 24 kilometers. However, this mountain is larger than Hawaii, as well as the tallest mountain on Earth (measuring from the sea floor up). Gullies have been seen on many areas on Vesta, and its suggested that water may have flowed, and maybe still flowing (but in tiny amounts) on the the planet, and ice has been inferred to be hiding in the interior of this rocky body, however, it's deep, for Dawn's instruments couldn't detect any presence of water on the asteroid. A fascinating asteroid, and by all means, more is to be learned about this rocky planet.

Go To:

"Asteroid Belts at Just the Right Place are Friendly to Life" 1 November 2012. NASA. Accessed on January 10, 2018 from:  https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=3574

"Asteroids" NASA Accessed on January 10, 2019 from:  https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/small-bodies/asteroids/in-depth/

Zubritsky, Elizabeth. "Jupiter's Youthful Travel s Redefined Solar System" 6, June 2011. NASA Accessed on January 10, 2019 from:  https://www.nasa.gov/topics/solarsystem/features/young-jupiter.html

Redd, Taylor Nola. "Asteroid Belt: Facts & Formation" 4 May, 2017 Future PLC. Accessed on January 10, 2019 from:              https://www.space.com/16105-asteroid-belt.html

Redd, Taylor Nola. "Ceres: The Smallest and Closet Dwarf Planet" 22 May, 2018. Future PLC. Accessed on January 10, 2019 from:  https://www.space.com/22891-ceres-dwarf-planet.html

Wall, Mike. "Dwarf Planet Ceres' Bizarre Bright Spots Shine in Stunning Up-Close View" 17 July, 2018. Future PLC Accessed on January 10, 2019 from:    https://www.space.com/41197-dwarf-planet-ceres-bright-spots-photos.html

Howell, Elizabeth. "7 Strange Facts About Dwarf Planet Ceres" 5 March, 2015 Future PLC. Accessed on January 10, 2019 from:  https://www.space.com/28740-dwarf-planet-ceres-strange-facts.html

Gericius, Tony. "Full View of Asteroid Vesta" 7 August, 2017. NASA. Accessed on January 10, 2019 from: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/dawn/multimedia/pia15678.html

"Vesta" NASA Accessed on january 10, 2019 from: https://www.nasa.gov/subject/6884/vesta/

Redd, Taylor Redd. "Vesta: Facts About the Brightest Asteroid"  29 May, 2018. Future PLC. Accessed on January 10, 2019 from: https://www.space.com/12097-vesta-asteroid-facts-solar-system.html

Dickinson, David. "Astro Challenge: Spotting 4 Vesta at its Best for Decades" 6 June, 2018. Universe Today. Accessed on January 10, 2019 from:  https://www.universetoday.com/139371/astro-challenge-spotting-4-vesta-at-its-best-for-decades/