Chapter 1807 Vesta

Chapter 1807 Vesta

And Zhao Zhongyao is now driving the spacecraft, flying towards this asteroid belt. While driving the spacecraft, he told his family some knowledge about the asteroid.

The speed of the spacecraft was very fast, and it only took about half an hour to fly into the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

After arriving in this asteroid belt, Feifei saw that this asteroid belt is not as imagined, asteroids can be seen everywhere, only occasionally a few asteroids can be seen flying past their spaceship.

‘Dad, there aren’t many asteroids in this asteroid belt! Feifei looked at Zhao Zhongyao with some puzzlement and said.

Zhao Zhongyao looked at the sporadic asteroids outside the spacecraft and said, ‘It’s not that there are not many asteroids, but that the distance between them is very far. The distance between the nearest asteroids is also several million kilometers. '

After hearing what his father said, Feifei said, 'So that's the case, so there are still a lot of asteroids here. '

‘Of course, there are about half a million asteroids in the entire asteroid belt. This can only count those small celestial bodies that can be regarded as asteroids. If it is considered those very small celestial bodies, if there are no small celestial bodies called asteroids at all, then there are countless small celestial bodies in the entire asteroid belt. Zhao Zhongyao said again.

After hearing what Zhao Zhongyao said, Feifei said again, "Dad, how do you think this asteroid belt was formed? Is it the asteroid celestial body of the original sun?" It has been preserved until now. '

After hearing Feifei's words, Zhao Zhongyao said again,'I feel that this inference is unlikely. Because at that time, small celestial bodies in other places in the solar system formed large planets. Why did the small celestial bodies in this zone not form big planets! Obviously this theory is not very reliable. '

'Dad, how do you think this asteroid belt was formed. Feifei looked at Zhao Zhongyao and said.

'I feel that this asteroid belt may have been formed after some large planets collided with each other and exploded. Zhao Zhongyao said again.

'Is it really! Dad, why do you have such an idea. Feifei looked at Zhao Zhongyao again and said.

‘The reason why I think this way is because the earliest explanation is the explosion theory, that is, the tenth largest planet in the solar system broke down into tens of millions of asteroids in a big explosion hundreds of millions of years ago. This theory solves two difficult problems at once: the generation of the asteroid belt and why there is no tenth planet. But the biggest flaw of this idea is that the cause of the planetary explosion is not clear.

Some people also believe that there are 5-10 relatively large asteroids similar in size to Ceres in the orbit between Jupiter and Mars. These planets gradually disintegrate through long-term collisions, becoming smaller and more divided, forming a large number of fragments, which is the asteroid belt we observe. These explanations are reasonable, but they cannot be justified, so they have not formed a conclusion. Zhao Zhongyao said again.

This book is sponsored by [Book Fan Base], read the book and get a cash red envelope!

After hearing what his father said, Feifei smiled and said, 'Forget it, this hypothesis and that hypothesis, who knows how this asteroid was formed. In my opinion, we still need to quickly find the fourth amethyst gemstone. ’ Feifei said again.

‘Yes, our purpose is not to study how this asteroid belt was formed, we are here to find the fourth amethyst gem. Zhao Zhongyao said the same.

‘Dad, but this asteroid has so many asteroids, which asteroid should we look for! Which asteroid is the fourth amethyst gem shown on our star map? ’ Feifei looked at his father and asked.

After hearing Feifei's words, Zhao Zhongyao said, "On the star map, it didn't say that the fourth amethyst gem was on that asteroid." Just say in this asteroid belt. '

As soon as Feifei heard what Zhao Zhongyao said, he said helplessly,'What, it's just in this asteroid belt. Then this asteroid has more than 500,000 decent asteroids, should we search for all of these 500,000 asteroids? '

At this moment, Feifei felt that it was really difficult to find the fourth amethyst gemstone. After all, there are too many asteroids in the asteroid belt, and it is too difficult to find them all.

After hearing Feifei's words, Zhao Zhongyao said again, 'Of course we can't search for all the asteroids in the entire asteroid belt. Of course we have to focus on finding things. '

'Then we should look for those asteroids. ’ Feifei said again.

‘As far as I know, there are three very famous asteroids in the asteroid belt, and they are also relatively large asteroids. We might as well search for these three asteroids first. I have a feeling that the fourth amethyst must be on one of the three asteroids. 'Zhao Zhongyao looked at Feifei again and said.

'Which three asteroids? ’ Feifei asked.

‘It’s the three well-known asteroids, Vesta, Juno, and Pallas. All three planets are more than 400 kilometers in diameter. If the fourth amethyst gem we are looking for is in this asteroid belt, it should be on one of these three asteroids. Zhao Zhongyao said again.

‘Dad, then should we hurry to see these three asteroids? Feifei looked at Zhao Zhongyao again and said.

‘That’s right, we just want to hurry up to see these three asteroids. Maybe the amethyst we're looking for is on one of the asteroids. If that's the case, we might be looking for it soon. Zhao Zhongyao said so.

'Okay, then let's go! But we should go to that asteroid first to find it! ’ Feifei said again.

After Zhao Zhongyao looked at the positions of the three asteroids displayed on the spacecraft display, he said, ‘We should go to Vesta first to see. Because our spacecraft is now the closest to this asteroid. '

After hearing Zhao Zhongyao's words, Feifei said,'Okay, then let's go to this Vesta first. '

After finishing speaking, Zhao Zhongyao drove the spaceship to this Vesta. It's just that the spacecraft is still tens of millions of kilometers away from this Vesta, and it still takes a few minutes to fly.

At this time, Feifei looked at Zhao Zhongyao again and asked, "Dad, then you know about this Vesta, can you let us know about this Vesta first." '

'Okay, then let me tell you about the knowledge about Vesta! After Zhao Zhongyao finished speaking, he told the family what he knew about this Vesta.

Vesta, one of the largest asteroids in the solar system, has an average diameter of 525 kilometers (326 miles). It was discovered by Heinrich Olbers on March 29, 1807. It is named after vesta, the goddess of home and fireplace in Roman mythology, and translated into Chinese as Vesta.

Vesta is the most massive asteroid in the main belt after the dwarf planet Ceres, accounting for 9% of the total mass of the main asteroid belt. Although it has a little more mass than Pallas, its volume is relatively small, making it the second largest asteroid. Vesta is the remaining protoplanet (internal division) from which the rocky planets formed. One or two hundred million years ago, Vesta was hit by an impact, which produced many fragments and left two huge impact craters, and the southern hemisphere has a high density. Some fragments of this event have fallen to Earth as hed meteorites, providing a rich source of information about Vesta.

Vesta, the brightest asteroid visible from Earth, is only a little farther away from the Sun at its farthest than Ceres at its closest, but Vesta's orbit is entirely within Ceres' orbit.

Vesta and Ceres are the largest members of the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, and Vesta is the second largest asteroid after Ceres. And is the largest asteroid inside the Kirkwood Gap at 2.5 AU. It's about the same size as Pallas (within the margin of error), but more massive. Vesta's shape appears to have been influenced by gravity as an oblate spheroid, but the large depressions and protrusions led to its exclusion as a planet at the 26th General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union. Therefore, Vesta will continue to be classified as an asteroid and still belongs to the small celestial bodies in the solar system.

Vesta is an intact resurfaced and asteroid that has undergone planetary differentiation. However, the existing iron meteorites and achondrites have not been confirmed on the parent body. In the classification of meteorites, they are fragments produced by impacts during the history of planetesimals and purgatory. Vesta's crust is thought to have the following layers: petrified regolith, from eruptions of achondrites and breccias.

Basaltic lava flows from non-progressive eruptions. Igneous rocks, including pyroxene, pyroxene, and plagioclase, come from accretive eruptions. Orthopyroxene-type igneous rocks with large grains, derived from bronze achondrites. Based on the size of the V-type asteroid (the fragments of Vesta's crust thrown off during the large impact), and the depth of the south pole crater, the thickness of the crust is estimated to be about 10 km.

The most obvious feature is that there is a huge crater with a diameter of 460 kilometers near the South Pole. Its width reaches 80% of the diameter of Vesta. The depth of the bottom of the pit reaches 13 kilometers, and the outer edge is 4 times higher than the surrounding terrain. ~12 kilometers, the total height difference reaches 25 kilometers, and there is an 18 kilometers high mountain protruding in the center. It is estimated that about 1% of the volume of Vesta was ejected by this impact, and the V-type asteroid of the Vesta family was produced by this impact.

In addition to this crater, several relatively large craters (about 150 kilometers in diameter and about 7 kilometers in depth) have also been observed. A 200-kilometer-wide albedo-dark region has been named Olbers in honor of Vesta's discoverer. But Olbers is not shown on the contour map, so whether it is a newly formed pit or an ancient basalt surface is unknown. It was chosen as the reference point at longitude 0°, and the prime meridian by definition passes through its center.

The eastern and western hemispheres show distinctly different topography. Preliminary spectroscopic analysis of Hubble Space Telescope images of the eastern hemisphere reveals several areas of high albedo, heavily cratered highland terrain with aged regolith, and deep enough to detect igneous rock formations pits. On the other hand, large swathes of the Western Hemisphere have surfaces dominated by dark geological formations thought to be basalts, perhaps similar to maria.

Zhao Zhongyao told his wife and children about this Vesta, and everyone already knew something about this Vesta.

Soon, the spacecraft flew near the asteroid.

Now Zhao Zhongyao, Feifei, Qu Yuqian and Tiantian can see this huge asteroid outside from the inside of the spacecraft. When it is far away, it feels like a small bright spot in space, just like the stars in the sky.

But when you are hundreds of kilometers away from it, you can already feel its hugeness. This is a very huge asteroid with a diameter of more than 500 kilometers. It is the second largest asteroid in the asteroid belt.

The entire Vesta looks like a huge egg. The shape of the entire Vesta is an ellipse. It's just that there's a huge depression at the South Pole, and that's a huge crater.

At this time, Feifei looked at the huge monster in front of him and said, 'Dad, will this asteroid be able to

What about the amethyst gemstone we're looking for? '

After hearing Feifei's words, Zhao Zhongyao said again,'It's hard to say, we still have to go to this asteroid to have a look. '

After finishing speaking, Zhao Zhongyao drove the spaceship towards the asteroid again.

Soon, their spacecraft flew over the asteroid. After reaching the sky above this asteroid, Zhao Zhongyao thought that he should go to that place on this asteroid to have a look.

Feifei also looked at Zhao Zhongyao and asked, 'Dad, then we should go to that place on this asteroid. Do you feel, if there is an amethyst gemstone on this asteroid, where will this amethyst gemstone be hidden. '

Zhao Zhongyao thought for a while and said, 'Generally speaking, amethyst gemstones exist in very special terrain on a planet. We should now also go to a relatively special terrain to take a look. '

'Then the most special terrain on this asteroid should be the huge crater at the South Pole! ’ Feifei said.

‘That’s right, it’s the crater at the South Pole, we can go to this crater first to have a look. Zhao Zhongyao said again.

In this way, after Zhao Zhongyao and Feifei discussed it, they drove the spaceship to the south pole of this asteroid. Soon, they flew to the south pole of this asteroid.

Arriving in the sky above the South Pole, Zhao Zhongyao and Feifei saw that there was a huge crater on the ground of the South Pole.