Ronald Robinson, Age 12, Of Ottawa, Ont., Canada, for his question:
Do they know how the asteroids were formed?
They may be called asteroids, meaning little stars, or planetoids, meaning little planets. Actually, they are the junior planets of the solar system. When we say that the sun has a family of nine planets, we are not counting these thousands and thousands of junior planets.
The nine planets, of course, orbit the sun on tracks one outside another, and the outer track of Pluto marks the edge of the solar system. An odd gap appears when we study the distances between these concentric orbits. The path of Mercury averages 36 million miles from the sun, and the path of Venus is some 31 million miles farther from the sun. The average distance between the orbits of venus and the earth is 26 million miles, and the tracks of the earth and mars are separated by about 48 million miles.
Between Mars and Jupiter there seems to be a vast planetless space spanning 342 million miles. There is room here for at least one or two planetary orbits to compare with those closer to the sun. This waste space, however, is occupied by thousands of little asteroids that orbit the sun like a swarm of golden bees. The four largest ones might fit, with a tight squeeze, into the great lakes. Thousands of the smaller ones could be lost in Lake Ontario. It is estimated that the earth is about 1000 times bigger than all the orbiting asteroids lumped together.
The mystery of these small heavenly bodies began in 1801 when the first one was discovered by telescope. It is still a mystery for no one can say for sure how they were formed. In cases of this sort, the experts come up with educated guesses cal1ed theories. There are at least three theories which suggest how the asteroids might, just have been born.
One of these theories depends upon another theory which suggests that the planets themselves gelled from little fragments of solid materials when the sun was young. It suggests that the asteroids are a proto planet that failed to gell into a planet. Another theory suggests that the asteroids are the remains of a planet that formed and later broke apart into fragments. A third theory suggests that the swarm or orbiting debris was left by passing comets, as one by one they paid their rare visits to the sun. But none of these educated guesses can be proved.
When we have enough facts, we can prove that a theory is right or wrong. Then it is no longer a theory. At present we do not know enough facts to prove how the asteroids were formed. Each of the theories, however, can claim enough known facts to suggest that it might, just might be correct. And if someone discovered a new fact to prove that one of them could not be true, that theory would be scrapped.