Category: Main Asteroid Belt

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Main Asteroid Belt

The Healing Properties of 10 Hygiea

Circling the asteroid of Hygiea at a distance of 1.3 miles is the luxury spa-cruise ship of Asclepius. Throughout the solar system, Hygiea is known for its healing properties of its ice. The frozen water ice ponds spotted on this metal and rock sphere contain microorganisms that awaken and hunger when warmed from a cryogenic state. One of these microorganisms has folkloric healing properties, supposedly living on toxins from the body. The water is not healthy to ingest but it can be brought to high temperatures and bathed in. At its height, this form of bathing became a healing trend for the upper one percent of the wealthy.

***

10 Hygiea’s surface is dark and cold and has awkwardly low gravity and a mind bendingly highly magnetic field. In the early days, most of the health conscious people who were interested this once luxury priced treatment would not set foot on such a dirty and unaccommodating space rock. An exclusive spa resort was created above the uncomfortable surface to give a view of the ice chunks and validate authenticity of the water while soaking in this non-FDA approved medicine to heal.

With time this “treatment” became dated, less of a fad and advertised affordability.

***

Sonja was escorted through the wide corridors and into the “Lave” room by a tall skinny man with a black mustache wearing a skin tight lycra suit with a tiny white collar and a clip on black bowtie. As the dented metal doors squeaked open sideways, an unusual smell wafted out. It was the smell of the sea mixed with a pungent garlic and metallic odor. 

The room was no bigger than a closet. It obviously had been much larger at one time then was cut in half for economic reasons. The small doorway was the entire back wall. The side walls were painted a sanitary rental white that needed a second coat. There were chips along the floorboards and bubbles in the corners. The fourth wall was a large sealed window that oversaw the asteroid below.

The center of this claustrophobic room was an overwhelmingly large jacuzzi tub. A long thin mirror stood on one side of the tub. It was stretched and designed to distort its reflected image in a way that would flatter the physique of the man or woman who peered into it. A system aged hooks were on the opposite wall. The metal plating was wearing off and showing white plastic underneath.

The ship hovered uncomfortably close to Hygeia’s landscape. The small world slowly drifted by as it moved in its natural rotation. Mostly dark, its surface was pitted in long, shallow craters. Large, glistening frozen, jagged ponds reflected the ship’s lights back to the spacecraft Asclepius. Bath water. This view was touted in the spas brochures.

***

After the attendant had exited with a bow, Sonja took off the thick white robe the spa had provided. She noticed an orangish-brown stain on the fleece lining and made a face of disgust. But what did she expect? She had used a coupon.

Hanging the robe on a worn metal hook, Sonja looked into the mirror and stopped to admire herself. “Exercise room is working”, she thought as she eased into the tub.  The water was viscous, bad smelling and almost unbearably hot to the touch. She would get used to it, she thought. She gazed down at her toes and at the rock that appeared huge just beyond the glass. It was uncomfortably close. 

The water temperature became tolerable but the smells did not. It was noxious. She tried to call to her attendant outside the door but no sound came out of her. Sonja gagged with a little vomit coming out of her mouth and down her chin. Her body stiffened. Her vision began to be taken away as it was being taken over by a tunnel of red static. Her eyes closed halfway and shrinking pupils clicked from the left to right repeatedly. The tunnel closed. The fumes took over everything.

***

Sonja was soaking in a pool of black. Spots of white moved above her. It was the night sky. She was submerged in water. The air was clean and warm. Her body felt heavy and unmovable. A large rectangular object passed by overhead. It was metal and glass and made an old, rickety sound. The Asclepius. She was in a crater. Steam hung in the air.

…

Tiny pinkish dots swam in the water. They tickled Sonja’s body as they rubbed against her. They changed very quickly from eggs to an inch long in seconds. The pink creatures were human-like and had crowned heads. One had a red ribbon tied onto the crown. One carried a trident. They had wide tails to cover their nudity. She thought about advertisements she saw in magazines as a kid and was filled with joy. They began to do tricks. They did flips and water skied. Sonja laughed and clapped. “Sea Monkeys”, she whispered and giggled.

But things changed. The creatures flushed with darkness. Their crowns rounded into suction cups with tiny teeth. Their tails grew long and tape-like. As mature leeches they probed her body. One attached to the skin of her armpit. With disgust, she pulled on its tail but it only stretched impossibly long and wouldn’t detach.

Were leeches the treatment? It hadn’t been communicated to her. She wouldn’t have agreed to this. Would she?

Soon a second and then a third leech attached. The fourth had two heads and both grabbed a space on her stomach on either side of her belly button. Her skin was being covered like a suit.  The leeches grew fat with her blood. She was being drained. 

***

Sonja stood up and stepped out of the tub. The man in the latex suit was holding the white robe open. He looked the other way for her modesty. She slid into it. The immaculate white fleece lining was soft on her skin.

She felt great.

About:

10 Hygiea is the 4th largest body in the Main asteroid Belt. It has a radius of nearly 138 miles and makes up 3% of the total mass of the belt. It is considered an asteroid, minor planet and possibly a dwarf planet.

Sea monkeys most likely don’t Live there.

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Main Asteroid Belt

4 Vesta… Propensity

On its descent to the small planet’s surface, the encapsulated rover fired its two retro rockets, nudging it in an upward motion and bringing it down slowly to soften its landing. Its eight Kevlar airbags inflated to create a gentle bouncing, protecting this rover’s fragile instruments.

The rover named “Propensity” by NASA was equipped with a high definition camera to examine rocks and soil samples with visible light and a spectrometer to measure electromagnetic radiation. It also was fitted with an extendable arm capable of grinding then vacuuming up debris bringing it to a micro lab in the rovers belly for analysis of the small planet’s mineral make up. Here it could search for evidence of ancient microbial life that may have once existed on Vesta.

When the lander was released from it’s capsule and began to fall, something felt wrong to the rover. It fell fast and heavily to Vesta’s solid surface not softly and gently with the joyous bounces it had felt in it’s Earth testing. It’s decent ended with a jarring thud. Propensity’s heart skipped and slowed to a flat hum. It rolled backwards across the asteroid’s surface slipping hazily into a chasm of darkness. Propensity’s tires continued to spin for as long as its reserve energy lasted.

The rover laid on its back completely still and silent and unconscious.

*

Propensity sent a distress message to its home base on Earth but the team did not respond. At least not coherently.

There was a hazy grinding in the rover’s gullet followed by a scratchy yell coming from its audio receiver. A voice that was distant and high pitched, a NASA team member complaining about their job as if no one was listening. Propensity thought it knew its entire team but it didn’t recognize this voice. The voice turned into a screaking hiss.

*

When the rover powered back on, light was rising from over the edge of a gully wall. It must have been streaming in for a while. Propensity’s solar panels had absorbed enough light to create a small amount of electricity and something resembling clarity. The vehicle slowly awoke. As its main camera came into focus all it could see was a rockface wall in the distance. The rover had no idea how long it had been laying there. Five minutes or five years. Both seemed possible.

*

Near the rock face, three shadowy figures appeared walking steadily across a craggy terrain. They looked almost human, though that wasn’t possible. No human had ever been on this world.

The first of these figure was tall and impossibly thin and appeared gender neutral. They wore a white one piece baggy linen suit. It hung off their body like a plastic bag stuck on a tree branch. On its head was a pointy white hat with a vertical line of fluffy black balls that lead to a dark pompom at its tip. The figure’s face was wrinkled and boney, covered with a thin layer of white makeup. Two black lines drawn on the forehead suggested eyebrows, one peaked and one lowered. Their thin white pancake make up became a smear at the edges of their face. The figure walked slowly and deliberately as if monitoring and controlling each of their small muscles with precision, from a long bald head down to the puff ball tips of their pointy shoes. The figure wore a ruffled collar that enshrouded their head as if it poked though a pink cloud.

The next figure was muscular and wore only peddle pusher orange pants. His muscles were absurd and seemed almost over inflated. Cartoonish. He had deep red skin. Long bull-like horns came out of either side of his oversized head. He was barefoot with eight huge toes.

The third figure was a woman with long auburn curly hair pulled back and into a loose bun. She wore a bustle skirt and only a very tight corset on top. She and the enormous devil horned man had their arms intertwined. She leaned in and whispered something into his ear.

The horned man stepped forward, and grabbed the side of the rover, pushing until it was set in an upright position. The woman clapped rapidly and a sparrow flew over her head.

The being with the pointy hat stepped forward and very deliberately reached behind their back, pulling a long and thin white and red parasol out of nowhere. The figure very slowly and purposely opened it over the rover. Golden dust fell out like tiny pieces of rain.

The rover felt drowsy and drifted away.

The three figures linked arms and walked away.

*

In the bright sun light, Propensity drove across the surface of the small planet, scanning the ground for life. The rover was careful to avoid craters. If it remained careful, everything would be okay.

***

Astronomical Symbol, 4 Vesta

About 4 Vesta-

4 Vesta is a minor planet and asteroid located in the Main Asteroid belt. It’s existence was discovered on Earth in 1807. In the 1990s this world was observed in greater detail by the then state of the art Hubble telescope. In 2012 it was studied while orbited by NASA’s Dawn spacecraft on it’s way to visit the larger dwarf planet Ceres. 

Like the Earth and unlike most asteroids in any region, Vesta is composed of three distinct inner layers. It known to have a crust, a mantle and a central core. With a diameter of 330 miles, Vesta is the second largest object found in the asteroid belt. Ceres, of course, being the biggest.

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Main Asteroid Belt

24 Themis Reflects…

The sky was growing darker. It was slowly being covered by large blobs that get smaller and slowly cover patches of the blue sky above Minnesota.

With winter coming the and sporadic rain, the ground was covered with a thin layer of ice. Underneath was snow and frozen dirt. Food was in short supply for animals that stayed through the harsh Midwest winters. 

The blobs began to solidify in the sky like a mosaic of brown and white and orange. They swirled and then dispersed single file into the ether of endlessness until each exited view one at a time.

*

Every five and a half years, the minor planet and asteroid 24 Themis’ irregular solar orbit will bring it close to its giant neighbor, Jupiter. The tiny asteroid can feel the enormous planet’s gravitational pull. But this time, after 200 million years, the pull felt stronger, and strangely prickly.

*

24 Themis is surrounded by a family of smaller asteroids named the Themistians. These are siblings and cousins, small and bobbing in place in the soup of blackness that is outer space. Themis always liked reflecting back their images to each on the paper thin layer of ice covering its surface. When this asteroid came close, each member to a member of it’s little family, it felt warmth and comforting pull. But it was only Jupiter’s strong gravitational pull that squeezed water to seep out of its liquid mantle, repaving its slick bright surface.

When 24 Themis came close to Jupiter, it always considered its own quiet insignificance and diminutive size. It flashed back the large planet’s stormy surface in swirls of orange and brown and the blue covering the planet’s vast polar regions. All while choking on the dust of Jupiter’s thin rings.

*

The space between Earth and 24 Themis was immense and a thin line of an almost flightless wild bird defied physics and proceeded to it’s unlikely but instinctive destination, a floating carbon ice covered rock near Jupiter. 

*

One by one these ancient birds landed on the surface of 24 Themis. They were Meleagris gallopavo, more commonly known as wild turkeys. There was no reason they should survive on this asteroid but they did. Each slowly ascended onto the gushing water. They walked like prehistoric Earth animals, cleaned the brown and orange feathers below their blue necks and pecked and scratched the icy ground, trying to dig up food. Their snoots were short and pointy and looked like horns growing out of their wrinkled, expressionless faces. The solar wind blew shiny masses of solid bodies into individual feathers. 

Soon there were hundreds of wild turkeys. Males wanting to mate fanned their tail feathers screaming, chasing away other males. Females that were uncertain of these beasts running and being followed, creating new swirls on this little rock’s surface.

The family was terrified.

As quickly as they appeared, the birds flew away single file.

* 

24 Themis thought about the ever growing, always inexplicable universe. Was this all a dream? Prickly goosebumps covered the crust of the asteroid.

Themis 24- Astronomical Symbol

About 24 Themis-

The asteroid 24 Themis, 24 meaning the 24th asteroid spotted on Earth, was found in 1853. It orbits on the farer side of the Main Asteroid Belt of our solar system.

Themis is also the name of my son but he was not named after the asteroid but rather for my grandfather, Themistocles Megas. Themis is the common nickname in Greece.

The asteroid, however, is named after the ancient Greek goddess Themis, the personification of justice and natural law. You probably know the image of her wearing a blindfold and holding a scale.

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Main Asteroid Belt

Psyche Reached Out Its Hand

That is not what the mission is about. However, if you Google it, you are more likely to find articles about wealth than learning about our solar system’s history.

Dream.

The spacecraft headed to its destination, gliding softly though the living blackness of space, quietly turning solar power into electricity then using it. As planned, it passed close enough to Mars to be grabbed by the planet’s gravity and hurled farther and faster out into further depths. When it flew by,16 Psyche reached out its hand, caught it, slowed it down and gently set the craft into its own orbit. It was easier than expected. Now, this travelling namesake peacefully circled 16 Psyche, quietly sending back information to earth as it was slowly getting closer and closer to this large metal friend.

The craft was a little smaller than a smart car, which can barely hold two people, and was an unmanned probe. It was built to be light and efficient enough to keep power as it stayed with the planetoid for a 21 month study. Mapping it’s surface, and collecting geologic, compositional, and topographic data. This was a mission of wonder and exploration. The craft was equipped with a newly developed communication device which used lasers instead of radio waves to send information back to Earth. The signals could be retrieved and interpreted by a scientific team quickly. 

*

The early readings were exciting, but as expected. The craft’s instruments showed that Psyche was a world made of solid metal with piles of giant silicate rocks littering large segments on the surface. This was what the team had hoped to find. The metal making up the asteroid was an enormous amounts of iron and nickel. Both of these have value and were expected. But the traces of the more sought after gold and platinum, which had been inferred by some, had not been detected. Not yet. There was still 18 months of orbit to find them. Still time for the investors.

*

This mission was created to find more information about this unusual asteroid which was thought to be similar to the inferred composition of core of the Earth. The Psyche mission was meant to help humanity understand more about their planet and about how the solar system in general was formed.

This, however, in the private sector, making money is of the most interest.

*

A large group of corporations on Earth, mostly representing the U.S., Russia, and China were already planning a second mission to claim to mining rights in the regions most promising on this new found territory.

This was arguably too soon. It was currently unclear of how any large amount of metal could be transported back to Earth. Maybe more importantly, international laws involving asteroids were far from being established. A claim would be a political act. And how would this effect the Earth’s economy?

Everything was speculative, but it could mean endless wealth for the few.

*

In the third month of orbit, an unusual object was spotted floating in the darkness of space. It was moving toward Psyche rapidly. The object was arch shaped and it was growing. Getting longer from the end that approached the asteroid. The arch’s beginning could not be seen and its beginning disappeared into the dark broth of space.

*

The arch was made up of millions of small individual white links. They, too, were metal.

Each link had legs and looked something like an insect. They had three body parts and small hair-like bristles coming out of large pincers on either side of steel-trap mouths. They moved like animals but had empty eyes like machines. Each tiny link crawled over the back of the one in front of it to bring the arch closer to its target. Once this strange bridge touched down on the asteroid’s metal surface, the small world was very quickly alive with movement. Shiny white insect-like things were running in circles and scattering and digging. They were using their strong pincers and muscular jaws to dig up the iron and nickel. Then they swallowed it. The metal tasted sour and bitter. It was like eating blood…

*

On Earth, a scientific team watched in real time as these empty-eyed insect machines ate the metal and excreted more piles of silicate rocks.

Over the next hour, more and bigger craters appeared on the asteroid’s surface.

16 Psyche Astronomical Symbol

About Psyche:

16 Psyche is the 16th asteroid to be discovered. Like each of the previous asteroids I’ve featured here, it orbits our sun in the solar system’s massive main asteroid belt between planets Mars and Jupiter.

Currently, Nasa in collaboration with Arizona State University, is preparing for its first mission to visit a metal world. The mission, also named Psyche (appropriately enough), will launch in August of this year and is expected to arrive at its destination in 2026.   

Though it is unclear what will be found on the little world, some media is already speculating it’s worth at about $10,000 quadrillion. Believe it or not, that is a real number, not just something kids under 10 say.

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Main Asteroid Belt

Ceres but Dreaming

I.

The ground is icy and slippery, with pebbles scattered. The wind is strong and for some reason you are walking unsteadily against it. You are wearing all white including off white leather loafers with scoffed brown leather outsoles. Everything around you is white but the sky, which is deep black but speckled with glowing white dots. The ground is cold enough so that you feel a freezing stab coming through the worn leather bottoms of your shoes. Your breath is moist and cloudy. It creates murky white clouds that grow and dissipate like smoke.  A crystalline bright blue light blinds you in the distance.  Your skin burns and blisters, from frozen blue to pink and red.

II.

You’ve had a series of recurring dreams lately. Over the past few nights, weeks or maybe years, you dreamed that you were underground walking through an enormous and smooth white PVC sewer pipe. You stretch your arms and legs and walk through it like a starfish but standing up. In the distance is a bright blue LED safety light flashing. You walk toward it and a strong smell of plastic overtakes you until your eyes water and you fall unconsciously. 

lll.

You feel your body sinking slowly. You open your eyes and taste salt on your cracked lips.

IV.

As you break through the ice, the blue brine seeps into your mouth, goes up your nose and coats your eyes. “Is this just a dream?”, you think. You can see and breathe just fine and are totally relaxed. You slowly sink into the water. There is no bottom to this ocean to be seen. It is warm and buoyant. You open and close your eyes comfortably and blow salty bubbles out of your nose.

Behind the bubbles are immense swarms of translucent white shrimp. But not shrimp, maybe krill? Or something like them? The krill-like animals move their miniature legs quickly and swim in schools. They form spirals that are reminiscent of DNA strands. It’s beautiful.

V.

Just past the small krill, a huge whale-like animal with bright blue skin swims in circles. It opens its mouth and you feel a pull.

⚳ , ①

About Ceres-

Ceres was the first asteroid to be discovered by human astronomers. It was in 1801 and was instantly tagged as a planet. It wasn’t until later, when many more objects were found in its orbit, were the terms “asteroid” and “minor planet” coined.

This asteroid is notable for its bright spots that appear on the surface, mostly bright white but with blue patches that look like beacons of light. They are probably from the salt that came to the surface from a large briny, ocean-like reservoir underneath.

In 2006, along with Pluto, Ceres was designated a dwarf planet. While small, Ceres makes up about 25% of the mass in the Asteroid belt.