As two massive objects pass near each other, gravitational forces induce dramatic physical changes -- decompressing, melting, stripping material away and even annihilating the smaller object. |
As two massive objects pass near each other, gravitational forces induce dramatic physical changes—decompressing, melting, stripping material away, and even annihilating the smaller object. You can do a lot of physics and chemistry on objects in the solar system without even touching them. |
It's like uncorking the world's most carbonated beverage. What happens when a planet gets decompressed by 50 percent is something we don't understand very well as this stage, but it can shift the chemistry and physics all over the place. |
It's like uncorking the world's most carbonated beverage. What happens when a planet gets decompressed by 50 percent is something we don't understand very well at this stage, but it can shift the chemistry and physics all over the place, producing a complexity of materials that could very well account for the heterogeneity we see in meteorites. |
Some asteroids look like small planets, not very disturbed, and at the other end of the spectrum are ones that look like iron-rich dog bones in space. |
We're looking at what happens when worlds collide. |