The first ever masses to have been created since before the creation of the solar system may have just been discovered, according to recent reports that suggest the discovery of perhaps the oldest asteroids to exist in the universe.
The asteroids in question are depicted as being darkly colored objects and predate our very own solar system. According to research done on the relics, it is said that the asteroids are over four billion years old, making them the oldest known objects in the universe. This family of asteroids was found within the Main Belt of asteroids and did not feature similarities to the other families in the belt, which urged researchers to examine exactly what kind of asteroids these are. Because of this finding, researchers were also able to identify original planetesimals that are larger than 35 kilometres, suggesting that when asteroids are created, they are created as big objects from the start and do not necessarily grow over time in size.
This study comes from the South West Research Institute (SwRI) which consists of a team of international researchers who had been investigating the asteroids along the Main Belt, that orbits between Mars and Jupiter. The appearance of such asteroids could be the result of a collision that had occurred eons ago in the past, leaving these planetesimals behind as relics. The challenge, however, is identifying whether those asteroids belong to the same family, since over time, the asteroids tend to drift away and join other belts, making it difficult to determine the origin.
Interestingly, the team has used a new method to scope for these kinds of asteroids which involves looking for the “edges” of families that have drifted away the furthest in the belt. By matching the sizes and shapes of the matching drifting asteroids with similar ones like them, the families can be identified. As the asteroids move around their orbits and get exposed to the sun, the heat from the sun acts as a thruster that moves the asteroids further away from their family. The smaller ones travel faster than the larger ones.
This behaviour of drifting asteroids is called the Yarkovsky effect. Because of this effect and this discovery, scientists now also believe that a similar occurrence took place with planets like Saturn, Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune, suggesting that these planets could have formed their own solar system internally, but then migrated outwards as time passed by. By learning about these primordial asteroids, asteroids will be able to uncover mysteries surrounding the formation of the solar system and the creation of Earth and the solar system.