Three celestial centaurs. “New threat”: The Earth may die from a collision with centaur asteroids Asteroids centaurs

Objects in this group are given the names of centaurs of ancient mythology.

Story

The first centaur to be discovered was Chiron (). When approaching perihelion, it exhibits a coma characteristic of comets, so Chiron is classified as both a comet (95P/Chiron) and an asteroid (2060 Chiron), although it is significantly larger than a typical comet.

The most famous centaurs

Name	Equatorial diameter, km	Major semi-axis, a. e.	Perihelion, a. e.	Aphelios, a. e.	Open	Notes
(2060) Chiron	218 ± 20	13,710	8,449	18,891		Possibly has rings
(5145) Foul (Pholus)	185 ± 16	20,431	8,720	32,142
(7066) Nessus	about 58	24,558	11,786	37,330
(8405) Asbolus	66 ± 4	17,942	6,834	29,049
(10199) Chariclo	258.6 ± 10.3	15,87	13,08	18,66		the largest asteroid between the Main Belt and the Kuiper Belt. On March 26, 2014, the discovery of two rings around Chariklo was announced

Write a review on the article "Centaurs (asteroids)"

Notes

Links

Saturn

This is a draft article on astronomy. You can help the project by adding to it.

View this template : Incorrect or missing image Central star and planets dwarf planets large satellites Satellites/rings First discovered asteroids Small bodies Artificial objects Hypothetical objects

Excerpt characterizing Centaurs (asteroids)

A sharp pain twisted my tired heart... This sweet, brutally tortured girl, almost a child, begged me for death as a favor!!! The executioners not only wounded her fragile body - they desecrated her pure soul, raping her together!.. And now Damiana was ready to “leave.” She asked for death as deliverance, even for a moment, without thinking about salvation. She was tortured and desecrated, and did not want to live... Anna appeared before my eyes... God, was it really possible that the same terrible end awaited her?!! Will I be able to save her from this nightmare?!
Damiana looked at me pleadingly with her clear gray eyes, which reflected inhumanly deep pain, wild in its strength... She could no longer fight. She didn't have enough strength for this. And in order not to betray herself, she preferred to leave...
What kind of “people” were they who committed such cruelty?! What kind of monsters trampled our pure Earth, desecrating it with their meanness and “black” soul?.. I cried quietly, stroking the sweet face of this courageous, unfortunate girl, who never lived even a small part of her sad, failed life... And mine hatred burned my soul! Hatred for the monster who called himself the Pope... the vicegerent of God... and the Holy Father... who enjoyed his rotten power and wealth, while in his own terrible basement a wonderful, pure soul was passing away from life. She left of her own free will... Because she could no longer bear the extreme pain inflicted on her by order of the same “holy” Pope...
Oh, how I hated him!!!.. I hated him with all my heart, with all my soul! And I knew that I would take revenge on him, no matter what it cost me. For everyone who died so brutally on his orders... For his father... for Girolamo... for this kind, pure girl... and for everyone else from whom he playfully took away the opportunity to live their dear and only life body, earthly life.
“I’ll help you, girl... I’ll help you, honey...” I whispered softly, cradling her tenderly. “Calm down, honey, there won’t be any more pain.” My father went there... I talked to him. There is only light and peace... Relax, my dear... I will fulfill your wish. Now you are going to leave - don’t be afraid. You won't feel anything... I'll help you, Damiana. I'll be with you...

With their tail they can cause many disasters

The threat that space objects pose to our planet may be greater than commonly believed. This concern was expressed by specialists from the University of Buckingham. In their opinion, the particular danger lies not in objects located within the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, but in cosmic bodies much more distant from us - the so-called centaur asteroids.

Asteroid-centaurs in the West are usually referred to as “comets-centaurs”. It is the fact that they combine the features of a comet and an asteroid that is the reason why they receive the names of centaurs - half-humans, half-horses from ancient Greek mythology. These space objects are balls of ice and dust, the diameter of which is usually from 50 to 100 kilometers. They move in an extremely unstable orbit and from time to time find themselves under the influence of the gravitational fields of the gas giants - Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, writes The Guardian.

About once every 40-100 thousand years, one of these gravitational fields “throws” an asteroid towards the Earth. As it approaches the Sun, it gradually disintegrates, leaving behind a “tail” of debris, the collision of which with the Earth, according to scientists, is inevitable. The bombardment of our planet by comets breaking off from the centaur asteroid will likely continue for up to hundreds of thousands of years, and many of these comets may be large enough to cause various cataclysms on Earth.

According to scientists, any of the centaur asteroids has a greater mass than all currently discovered asteroids that could collide with the Earth combined.

“We've spent three decades studying the odds of an asteroid impact on Earth,” said Bill Napier, lead author of the study. “We came to the conclusion that we should monitor not only the asteroids “in the neighborhood,” but also those located further than the orbit of Jupiter.” According to the scientist, if the conclusions obtained by his team are correct, humanity needs to start collecting additional information about centaur asteroids as soon as possible in case one of them becomes a real threat to the inhabitants of the planet.

Bombardment by comets is one of the theories that explain many key events in the history of the Earth, including the emergence of life on it and the extinction of dinosaurs.

Chiron, Phol, Nessus

A number of small planets between the orbits of Jupiter and Neptune are named after the mythical centaurs. Centaurs are characters from Greek mythology and are half human (head, torso, arms) and half horse (back, legs), forest or mountain demons.

A characteristic feature of the centaurs was their wild temperament and tendency to drink, which is why they were constant companions of the god of wine Dionysus.

In symbolism and astrology, the centaur personifies the wild, bestial, undeveloped principle in man and the higher, human, civilized. Of all the centaur asteroids, three are used in astrology.

Chiron

Asteroid No. 2060, the first of the Centaurs to be discovered (in 1977), is considered both a minor planet and a comet. In mythology, Chiron was the most prominent and least savage centaur. On the contrary, he was a wise centaur, scientist, herbal healer and teacher, teacher of many heroes. He tried to reconcile the other centaurs who were constantly fighting, which is why he died.
In astrology Chiron means peacefulness, practical wisdom, justice, the presence of an alternative, but also duality, constant fluctuations. Chiron considered strong in the sign of Libra.

Foul

Asteroid No. 5145, discovered in 1992. Pholus is also a wise centaur, brother of Chiron and friend of Hercules. Foul lived in a cave and was engaged in winemaking. When Foul treated Hercules, who came to visit, centaurs ran to the cave, hoping for a good drink. A fairly tipsy Hercules began to drive them away, a fight ensued in which Hercules killed almost all the centaurs, but accidentally mortally wounded his friend with a poisonous arrow. The gods have turned Foul to the constellation Sagittarius.
In astrology Foul means abandonment of everything lower for the sake of the higher, but sometimes loss of oneself, a tendency to solitude, Foul strongly manifested in the horoscopes of winemakers and moonshiners.

Ness

Asteroid No. 7066, discovered in 1993. Nessus is a centaur with the most malicious character. After the battle of Hercules with the centaurs, the survivor Ness settled by the river and began working as a carrier. One day he was transporting Hercules’ wife Deianira across the river and, encroaching on her honor, attempted to kidnap the woman. But Hercules caught up and shot the kidnapper with a poisonous arrow, smeared with the bile of the Lernaean hydra. Bleeding before death Ness managed to teach Deianira “love magic.” He advised her to collect his blood and soak Hercules' cloak with it. Allegedly, this procedure will help her strengthen her husband’s love and ensure his fidelity. Dejanira followed bad advice, as a result of which Hercules died from the poison that was in the blood of the treacherous centaur. After this, Dejanira committed suicide out of grief.

Astrological meanings of the asteroid Nessa correspond to its mythological character. Ness in the horoscope indicates unbridledness, uncontrolled instincts, artificial incitement of feelings, a tendency to violence, including the use of love spells and great deceit.

There is a high probability that dinosaurs became extinct as a result of such bombardment from space 3.8 billion years ago.

Centaur asteroids get their name because they have both the characteristics of a comet and an asteroid. Their massive accumulation is located near Jupiter and Neptune. They, according to scientists, are capable of destroying life on Earth at any moment and causing the emergence of new species.

The centaur asteroid is a very dense formation of dust and ice with an unstable orbit. About once every hundred years, under the influence of gravity, one of the asteroids leaves orbit and begins to move towards the Earth. Scientists were concerned by the fact that such meteorites had already been spotted near Mars. The centaur asteroid closest to Earth has a diameter of 10 km. And he can head towards Earth at any moment.

Astrophysicist Rudolf Dvorak from the University of Vienna said: “Such events could lead to the destruction of existing life forms and create favorable conditions for the emergence of new ones.”

Dvorak's colleague, astronomer Mattia Galiazzo, assessed the consequences of the fall of a centaur asteroid to Earth. He simulated the situation and found out that the size of the crater at the impact site could be more than 100 km, and given its structure, water would fall on Earth, the volume of which would be comparable to the Adriatic Sea.

Scientists note that sometimes they approach the star and begin to disintegrate due to heating, but even if we are not in danger of dying from a collision with an entire asteroid in the near future, the falling ice fragments will certainly cause irreparable harm to the Earth.

Astrophysicists insist on detailed and more intensive observations of centaur asteroids, as these unpredictable cosmic bodies are now very close to Earth.