• Question: What elements are in astroids

    Asked by sambo to Arlene, Colin, David, Eugene, Paul on 14 Nov 2012.
    • Photo: Paul Higgins

      Paul Higgins answered on 14 Nov 2012:

      The three types of asteroids I can think of are metal, rock, or carboniferous. So, the metal ones are often Iron, the rock ones are a mix of lighter elements, like carbon, sulfur, oxygen etc., and the carboniferous ones are carbon (like it says on the tin), but also water (hydrogen and 2 oxygens) in the form of ice. These ones are rare, and when they land on earth, scientists have to be quick to recover them because they melt.

    • Photo: Colin Johnston

      Colin Johnston answered on 15 Nov 2012:

      Silicon, oxygen, iron, nickel, carbon, hydrogen would be among the most common. Magnesium, aluminium, calcium, potassium, fluorine, zinc, gallium, tin, antimony, germanium, arsenic, rubidium, strontium, zirconium, niobium, molybdenum are other elements found in meteorites.

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