from the origin-story-from-the-Roman-cinematic-universe dept.
Dwarf planet Ceres was formed in coldest zone of Solar System and thrust into Asteroid Belt:
Ceres is the largest object in the Asteroid Belt, a collection of celestial bodies located between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. It is roughly spherical and comprises a third of the Asteroid Belt's total mass, with a diameter of almost 1,000 km, less than a third of the Moon's.
[...] The dwarf planet's core is probably made up of heavy matter – iron and silicates – but what differentiates it from nearby objects is its mantle of ammonia and water ice. Most bodies in the Asteroid Belt do not have ammonia, so the hypothesis is that Ceres was formed outside it, in the colder region beyond Jupiter's orbit, and then thrust into the middle of the Asteroid Belt by the huge gravitational instability caused by the formation of gas giants Jupiter and Saturn.
"The presence of ammonia ice is strong observational evidence that Ceres may have been formed in the coldest region of the Solar System beyond the Frost Line, in temperatures low enough to cause condensation and fusion of water and such volatile substances as carbon monoxide [CO], carbon dioxide [CO2] and ammonia [NH3]," Ribeiro de Sousa said.
[...] "In our article, we propose a scenario to explain why Ceres is so different from neighboring asteroids. In this scenario, Ceres began forming in an orbit well beyond Saturn where ammonia was abundant. During the giant planet growth stage, it was pulled into the asteroid Belt as a migrant from the outer Solar System, and survived for 4.5 billion years until now," Ribeiro de Sousa said.
[...] "Our main finding was that in the past there were at least 3,600 Ceres-like objects beyond Saturn's orbit. With this number of objects, our model showed that one of them could have been transported and captured in the Asteroid Belt, in an orbit very similar to Ceres's current orbit," he said.
Journal Reference:
Rafael Ribeiro de Sousa, Alessandro Morbidelli, Rodney Gomes et al., Dynamical origin of the Dwarf Planet Ceres, Icarus, 379, 2022
DOI: 10.1016/j.icarus.2022.114933
(Score: 3, Informative) by PiMuNu on Thursday May 19 2022, @12:34PM
Non-paywalled version
https://arxiv.org/abs/2202.09238 [arxiv.org]
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 19 2022, @12:36PM
I wonder if this applies to the other large asteroids.
More importantly, it pretty much proves that the asteroid belt is actively maintained (presumably by the gravity of Jupiter and Mars) and not just a coincidence.
And assuming that the Nice model is true, it probably can give us a clue about how the entire Solar System formed.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by bzipitidoo on Thursday May 19 2022, @12:43PM (1 child)
There's long been speculation that the asteroid belt is the remnants of a 5th terrestrial planet that was somehow destroyed. Smashed apart in a massive collision. (Or, destroyed by the Martians??) The asteroid Psyche might be the largest remaining fragment of the core of this planet.
A major problem with the whole idea is that there just isn't enough material in the asteroid belt. Definitely ruling out Ceres as originating from this hypothetical planet reduces that material even more.
(Score: 3, Informative) by takyon on Thursday May 19 2022, @10:30PM
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asteroid_belt [wikipedia.org]
What is left in the belt is eminently exploitable (compared to larger objects). Looks like Psyche will reach Psyche in 2026. Let's get a metric ton of gold for everyone on the planet.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]