From: Mike Lorrey (mlorrey@datamann.com)
Date: Fri Apr 12 2002 - 11:41:21 MDT
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/solarsystem/double_asteroids_020411.html
"Most asteroids live the main asteroid belt, between Mars and Jupiter. A
few get booted to the inner solar system, often by the gravitational
effects of Jupiter.
Because at least some asteroid are expected to be less like solid rock
and more like rubble piles, the gravity of Earth or Mars might easily
split one asteroid into two, Margot and his colleagues say. They figure
the asteroid's rate of spin is increased until it simply flies apart.
Each of the five binaries examined in the new study had passed near
Earth or Mars in the past. None had made close approaches to Mercury or
Venus.
In one of the newly studied binaries, called 2000 DP107, the larger rock
is about 874 yards (800 meters) in diameter and the smaller one is
roughly the size of three football fields. They are separated by about
1.9 miles (3 kilometers). They orbit each other and can even create
eclipses of the Sun's light."
I find this rather interesting because a year or so ago I recall working
outside one day with a cloudless sky when a rather large shadow passed
through the valley and over me. Looking up I saw no aircraft or clouds
anywhere near the sun at all, which I though was rather strange. Could
this shadow have been from an NEA eclipse?
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