Mysterious gaps in the asteroid belt may have been caused by a shift in the orbits of Jupiter and Saturn four billion years ago, researchers say.

A computer simulation of the gravitational influence of these migrating planets matches previously unexplained gaps in the belt, according to a report published in the British journal Nature today.

“The pattern in the missing asteroids confirms other lines of evidence that the giant planets went through a brief episode of migration some time in the Solar System’s early history,” said David Minton study co-author and astronomer at the University of Arizona in Tucson, USA.

Source: Cosmos Online – click here for full article

 

 

An asteroid named 2009 DD45 flew past Earth today. The space rock was about 115 feet (35 meters) wide, perhaps a bit larger than one thought to have created a colossal explosion in the air above Siberia in 1908 that flattened 500,000 acres (2,000 square kilometers) of forest.

The asteroid was closest to Earth today at about 8:40 a.m. ET (1340 UT). It was some 44,740 miles (72,000 km) away. That’s about twice the distance of geosynchronous communications satellites. [...]

Source: Space.com – click here for full article