Astronomy › Section J · Small bodies and the origin of the solar system › Topic J.1
Asteroids and planetary defence
Asteroids are rocky and metallic leftovers from the building of the planets, so they preserve clues to the solar system's first few million years. A few of them cross Earth's orbit, which makes them the one natural disaster we could, in principle, prevent.
In this topic
- Leftover building blocks
- The asteroid belt
- What asteroids are made of
- Visits and samples
- Worked example: weighing an asteroid with its moon
- Near-Earth objects
- Impacts in recent history
- Worked example: the energy of an airburst
- Planetary defence and DART
- Common mistakes to avoid
- Key takeaways
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