New Families
Some asteroid families have formed recently, in astronomical terms. The Karin Cluster apparently formed about 5.7 million years ago from a collision with a 33 km radius progenitor asteroid. The Veritas family formed about 8.3 million years ago; evidence includes interplanetary dust recovered from ocean sediment.
More recently, the Datura cluster appears to have formed about 450 thousand years ago from a collision with a main-belt asteroid. The age estimate is based on the probability of the members having their current orbits, rather than from any physical evidence. However, this cluster may have been a source for some zodiacal dust material. Other recent cluster formations, such as the Iannini cluster (circa 1–5 million years ago), may have provided additional sources of this asteroid dust.
Read more about this topic: Asteroid Belt, Families and Groups
Famous quotes containing the word families:
“The brotherhood of men does not imply their equality. Families have their fools and their men of genius, their black sheep and their saints, their worldly successes and their worldly failures. A man should treat his brothers lovingly and with justice, according to the deserts of each. But the deserts of every brother are not the same.”
—Aldous Huxley (1894–1963)
“Children from humble families must be taught how to command just as other children must be taught how to obey.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)