Asteroids: Overview, Abstracts, and Bibliography

With the bulk of asteroids floating in space between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, astronomers puzzle over where these rocks came from. Are they the remnants of a planet? Excess not used in the formation of the Solar System? Nothing more than random bits of debris? The location of the belt makes for a quasi-barrier separating the inner from the outer planets. Perhaps asteroids were meant to discourage human space exploration. NASA has sent missions to explore the asteroid belt and the rocks themselves, and those missions have yielded some interesting observations on the composition of the asteroids but no definitive answer as to their origin. Earth-based tools such as telescopes and satellites also contribute to asteroid research but cannot plumb the depths behind these varied chunks of flotsam. Presented in this book is a list of carefully chosen abstracts and citations of relevant literature about asteroids and the research into them. Prior to this listing, though, comes an overview of the nature of the asteroids and what we know now about them and what we hope to discover in the future. lifeless but mysterious rocks inhabiting the solar system. To conclude, easy access is provided through author, title, and subject indexes.