Sodium chloride, better known as table salt, isn t exactly the type of mineral that captures the imagination of scientists. However, a smattering of tiny salt crystals discovered in a sample from an asteroid has researchers at the University of Arizona Lunar and Planetary Laboratory excited, because these crystals can only have formed in the presence of liquid water.
A study of cosmic dust found that giant asteroids would actually be difficult to destroy • Mezha Media mezha.media - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from mezha.media Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Rubble pile asteroids found to be particularly hard to destroy astronomy.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from astronomy.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
"To me it made no sense to pull one of even a few objects out of the swarm and call them something other than part of the swarm." -Mike Brown, A.K.A. PlutoKiller
In our Solar System, the four rocky planets dominate the inner portion, while the four gas giants dominate the outer Solar System. But out beyond Neptune, thousands of icy, rocky worlds including Pluto, the former ninth planet make up a vast, wide ring known as the Kuiper Belt.