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Old 13-02-2011, 07:58 AM
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higginsdj
A Lazy Astronomer

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Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Canberra
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Quote:
Originally Posted by renormalised View Post
Quite a few asteroids have orbits very similar to comets....some probably are old comets that have completely de-iced and what you have left is the rocky bits hanging about in the old orbits.
Or they have surface's that prevent contained ice from sublimating.....

In my view, there are only a certain number of formation mechanisms utilising only a limited number of compounds from a, universally speaking, small amount of space. As such, there should not be a great deal of difference between one comet and the next as there shouldn't be a great deal of difference between one asteroid and the next, though within the asteroids, there may be a mix of asteroids and 'dead' comets.

Of course 'great deal of difference' is relative.

Cheers
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