Asteroid with potential "unknown elements"

[Marc_G]

At first I thought the several articles like this one that hit my feed were "Ancient Aliens" type crap, but this is actually interesting:

https://www.sciencealert.com/astero...-seen-elements-from-beyond-the-periodic-table
While I bet that some of the excess density in these object may later be explained away by various measurement errors, it is intriguing.

 

[NTP2]

Maybe it was compressed and it is not uncompressing because the metal on the top acts like a pressure vessel?

 

[Marc_G]

My mind goes to exotic scifi plots where these things are fragments of condensed matter or similar things, I expect the real answer will be much more plain.

Meanwhile I will go with: they are actually the drive cores of ancient spacecraft, layered with accreted routine asteroid material. Inside each is a small captive black hole in magnetic containment that was part of the drive energy production system. These are left over from the great war that left Mars lifeless and resulted in the destruction of the planet that turned into the asteroid belt.

 

[ThirstyBarbarian]

My mind goes to exotic scifi plots where these things are fragments of condensed matter or similar things, I expect the real answer will be much more plain.

Meanwhile I will go with: they are actually the drive cores of ancient spacecraft, layered with accreted routine asteroid material. Inside each is a small captive black hole in magnetic containment that was part of the drive energy production system. These are left over from the great war that left Mars lifeless and resulted in the destruction of the planet that turned into the asteroid belt.

That’s absolutely correct, and I’d like to add that the weapons systems on these kinds of ships fire neutronium slugs.

 

[NTP2]

That’s absolutely correct, and I’d like to add that the weapons systems on these kinds of ships fire neutronium slugs.

No they fire plasma bolts made of plutonium!

 

[ThirstyBarbarian]

No they fire plasma bolts made of plutonium!

Nuh-uh. That’s the side that lost and got their asteroids handed to them. The winners had neutronium slugs!

 

[ThirstyBarbarian]

Setting the Martian War aside for a moment and getting back to the article… I wonder how these super-heavy elements would theoretically concentrate together to form a chunk that size. It seems like this stuff would be very rare. Are these elements heavy enough that they would sink to the core of a planet and form a concentrated mass? And then what? The planet gets shattered into pieces and this chunk of heavy elements becomes an asteroid?

I bet there are a lot of very wierd asteroids out there. There are probably some solid gold ones the size of Mount Everest floating around. I’ve heard the idea that some gas giants may produce enough pressure to form huge quantities of diamond. Maybe there‘s a bazillion-carat diamond asteroid out there somewhere.

 

[Rob Campbell]

Dilithium crystals?

 

[NTP2]

Setting the Martian War aside for a moment and getting back to the article… I wonder how these super-heavy elements would theoretically concentrate together to form a chunk that size.

Maybe the elements are sticky like water and form “drops”.

 

[NTP2]

Dilithium crystals?

Don’t you know that all the laws of chemistry say no dilithium? We are being realistic here

 

[Azamiryou]

Are these elements heavy enough that they would sink to the core of a planet and form a concentrated mass? And then what? The planet gets shattered into pieces and this chunk of heavy elements becomes an asteroid?

In short, yes. That's why asteroids mostly fall into categories such as nickel-iron, rocky, or ice.

(Not necessarily a "planet" though. There was a lot of heat in the accretion disc when the solar system was forming, so even small objects could be liquid and naturally sort into density layers before cooling to a solid and then breaking up in collisions with other objects.)

 

[cwbullet]

I personally doubt they find new elements in them, but it is interesting to see what they find.

 

[NTP2]

I personally doubt they find new elements in them, but it is interesting to see what they find.

I hope that they don’t, I don’t want to know how big the periodic table will get…

 

[Antares JS]

If true, and they find it, "Naquadah" is the only acceptable name. Any other name will be objectively wrong.

 

[ThirstyBarbarian]

I personally doubt they find new elements in them, but it is interesting to see what they find.

I doubt it too. If there were enough of this exotic element around to form an asteroid that size, I think we would have encountered it before.

 

[neil_w]

If true, and they find it, "Naquadah" is the only acceptable name. Any other name will be objectively wrong.

Vibranium? Unobtanium? Adamantium? Copium? Veritasium?