The behavior of the asteroid Phaeton can be explained by the discharge of sodium steam, suggested astrophysics from the United States. The article of scientists is published in The Planetary Science Journal.
Related to the Apollo group – asteroids with an orbit crossing the earthly from the outside – Phaeton becomes brighter when approaching the Sun. Usually, this behavior is characteristic only for comet: when the luminaries heated, their ice surface begins to evaporate. In addition, the asteroid is the source of the hemide meteor flow. The light from the passage of these meteoroids in the atmosphere allows you to judge them: so, it was known that Geminid has a low sodium content.
Researchers from the laboratory of the NASA reactive movement suggested that when approaching the Sun – when the temperature on the surface of the phaeton reaches 750 degrees Celsius – sodium heats up so much that it starts to evaporate and proceed from the surface of the asteroid through the faults in the crust. Simulation has shown that this jets are quite a bit of power to throw away the fragments of rocks from the surface. This can explain the occurrence of geminide.
To check its hypothesis, scientists heated to the required temperature (800 degrees Celsius) samples like the composition on the Faeton Meteorite Alende about three hours – which is “day” for an asteroid. As a result, there was no sodium in the breed – while maintaining all other elements.