2005-2006 Colloquium Series

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NAU Physical Sciences (Bldg 19, Rm 321), Monday, March 27, 2006, 4:00 PM
(Refreshments at 3:45pm)

Meteorite Porosity and Asteroid STructure: Are Asteroids Fluffy?

Brother Guy Consolmagno
Vatican Observatory Research Group

Abstract

The recent spaceprobe visits to asteroids, the discovery of satellites in orbit around asteroids, and an analysis of how asteroids perturb other solar system bodies, plus advances in radar and infrared measurements to give us asteroid sized and shapes, has led to the first reliable determination of asteroid densities. When compared to the densities of the meteorites believed to come from the asteroid belt, a new understanding is emerging of how asteroids are put together -- with implications both for the origin of planets and for future human encounters with Near Earth Objects.

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Local Host: Dave Cornelison, (928) 523-7641.