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IMO it is not because they are easily accessible thats why scientists are interested in them, it is because these comets and asteroids are formed from the very
by gamekathu 11y ago
IMO it is not because they are easily accessible thats why scientists are interested in them, it is because these comets and asteroids are formed from the very inception of the universe (big bang!) and thus contain critical data related to the origins of complex matter, which leads to life!
- adrianN 11y agoComets and asteroids and everything that is not Hydrogen is much much younger than the big bang.
- dr_zoidberg 11y agoSmall ammounts of helium, and very small ammounts of lithium were also created in the Big Bang... it's poetic to think that party of your smartphone battery could come from the begining of time :P
- toxican 11y ago>think that party of your not to mention party balloons ;)
- dredmorbius 11y agoActually, no, not your party balloons. Most terrestrial helium is formed as nuclear decay products -- beta particle emission -- from heavier elements, mostly thorium and uranium. A beta particle is essentially a naked helium nucleus, so it picks up a couple of electrons from elsewhere. Because it's nonreactive (and so doesn't bind to form heavier liquid or solid compounds as oxygen and hydrogen do), and at ambient temperatures exceeds Earth's escape velocity in the atmosphere, free helium that might have occurred in the primordial Earth would long since have escaped into space. It's actually sourced as part of natural gas extraction. So: terrestrial helium's actually younger than Earth. Related: there are concerns that a hydrogen economy might increase the rate at which molecular hydrogen escapes into space as well. About 25% of Earth's original water supply is thought to have disappeared this way already. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helium https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helium
- mikeash 11y agoMinor correction: alpha particles, not beta particles. Alpha particles are helium nuclei, while beta particles are just electrons.
- dredmorbius 11y agoThanks, apologies for that error.
- toxican 11y agoI don't think I've ever enjoyed being wrong so much haha. Thanks for the knowledge drop!
- dredmorbius 11y agoMy pleasure. The general topic (where and how minerals used on Earth come from) is an interesting one.
- andyjohnson0 11y agoA minor nitpick. The comets and asteroids are worthy of study, but they weren't formed at the big bang (except in the trivial sense that all matter in the universe came into existence then). The comets and asteroids in our solar system were created at some point after the solar system accreted out of a molecular gas cloud 4.5 billion years ago. At such they contain lots of evidence about conditions in the primordial solar system. But the universe itself is about 13.5 billion years old and none of the structures in the solar system (including the comets and asteroids themselves) existed at the big bang.
- gamekathu 11y agoright, my bad! my point is that they are the oldest accessible source of information