Binzel

Only those few objects that have ventured recently inside the moon's orbital distance and have experienced a "fresh shake" match freshly fallen meteorites measured in the laboratory, Binzel said.

Asteroids Zipping Too Close to Earth Can Experience Seismic Activity | Universe Today 2010

Binzel also proposed a new field of study: asteroid seismology.

Asteroids Zipping Too Close to Earth Can Experience Seismic Activity | Universe Today 2010

These rarely seen "fresh asteroids" have long interested astronomers because their spectral fingerprints, or how they reflect different wavelengths of light, match 80 percent of all meteorites that fall to Earth, according to a paper by Binzel appearing in the Jan. 21 issue of Nature.

Asteroids Zipping Too Close to Earth Can Experience Seismic Activity | Universe Today 2010

Binzel next determined that an asteroid traveling within a distance equal to 16 times the Earth's radius about one-quarter of the distance to the moon appears to experience vibrations strong enough to create fresh surface material.

Asteroids Zipping Too Close to Earth Can Experience Seismic Activity | Universe Today 2010

"The exact trigger distance depends on all those seismology factors that are the totally new and interesting area for cutting edge research," Binzel said.

Asteroids Zipping Too Close to Earth Can Experience Seismic Activity | Universe Today 2010

By hypothesizing about the cause of the fresh surfaces of some NEAs, Binzel and his colleagues have tried to solve a decades-long conundrum about why these fresh asteroids are not seen in the main asteroid belt, which is between Mars and Jupiter.

Asteroids Zipping Too Close to Earth Can Experience Seismic Activity | Universe Today 2010

The Earth and the moon are pocked with the craters of long-ago collisions, but Binzel, a member of the Ad Hoc Task Force on Planetary Defense, a NASA advisory council, noted that asteroids were not always a topic of much scientific interest.

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"Vesta is unique among the large asteroids," said Richard Binzel, professor of planetary sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

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"Vesta really is an amazing planet, I'd call it a planet," says MIT astronomer Richard Binzel, who is not on the mission team noting the asteroid rounded itself off in a period when it was covered with molten lava.

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Binzel of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

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