Asteroids are remnants of the early Solar System, with the potential to reveal secrets of our planets origins.
But they could also bring an end to life on Earth.
Carbon monoxide, for example, is volatile as it vaporizes at a temperature of -191C.
But iron, with a vaporization point of 2,862C is non-volatile.
This is somewhat different tocomets.
Some 500,000 asteroids have been cataloged to date, and many have small moons of their own.
This epoch is quite mysterious.
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Trojan asteroids orbit the Sun at the Lagrange points.
Lucy will first venture to the L4 Jupiter Trojans, which it will reach in 2027.
This remarkable flight path will be accomplished withsolar-electric propulsion.
Indeed, one Jupiter Trojan was recently found to have acomet-like tail.
Asteroid strikes
Not all asteroids are confined to a belt.
Some wander throughout the Solar System on orbits which can bring them into close proximity with planets like Earth.
At some point in late November, Nasa will attempt to launch DART.
There are even more asteroid missions in the near future.
In August 2022, Nasa will launchPsycheto visit its namesake asteroid,16 Psyche, which orbits in the main belt.
This peculiar world is over 200km across and contains a lot of metal.
This collision sheared off the outer layers of the fledgling planet, leaving the exposed metal-rich core behind.
