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Dec. 5, 2021
The modern model of the formation of the asteroid belt predicted that at an early stage there should have been many large Vesta-sized objects in which the subsurface differentiation took place, dividing into core, mantle and crust. In this case, the crust and partly the mantle should have consisted mainly of basaltic rocks.
With the subsequent destruction of these objects, at least half of the asteroids in the belt should have had a similar composition. In fact, it turned out that the basaltic material in asteroids as a whole is much less than predicted - about 6%. This means that most of the asteroids of this class were once fragments of the Vesta crust. They were knocked out of it as a result of some major collision of Vesta with another asteroid. It is assumed that as a result of this blow, a significant part of its original volume was knocked out of Vesta. Hence the name of this group - class V asteroids, from lat. Vesta.
Class V asteroids are moderately bright and close in composition to objects of spectral class S, which are mainly composed of silicates. However, class V asteroids have higher contents of pyroxene, one of the rock-forming minerals of earth's basalts.
Most of the asteroids of this class belong to the Vesta family. Their orbits lie in the interior of the asteroid belt, but not all. Some of them have different orbital characteristics. They cross the orbit of Mars and even the orbit of the Earth, like the asteroid Nyx (3908 Nyx). The belonging of this asteroid to spectral type V may indicate that it was once part of Vesta.
According to scientists, at present, there is some relationship between the composition of the asteroid and its distance from the Sun. Stone asteroids, composed of anhydrous silicates, are located closer to the Sun than carbonaceous asteroids located in the outer regions of the belt, in which traces of water are found in a bound state.
Source: Moscow Planetarium.
Related links:
ROSCOSMOS Press Release: https://www.roscosmos.ru/33494/
Moscow Planetarium: https://www.roscosmos.ru/tag/moskovskiy-planetariy/
Asteroid: https://www.roscosmos.ru/tag/asteroid/
Images, Text, Credits: ROSCOSMOS/Moscow Planetarium/Orbiter.ch Aerospace/Roland Berga.
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