There’s a lot about space that is yet to be explored. But one thing we do know is that asteroids and meteors are colliding all the time. We are aware that meteors have previously crashed into Earth. However, you might be wondering whether asteroids collide with the sun just as often, if not more.
Asteroids hit the sun all the time. Asteroids that often come into the path of the sun don’t last long enough to take another breath. However, new research suggests that those that come in direct contact with the sun perish just as quickly. Since the sun is simply a ball of hot gases, small asteroids have practically no impact on the sun.
Let’s take a deeper look into these phenomena below.
Asteroids vs. Meteors
While meteor is a term we are more familiar with, it differs from a usual asteroid. Asteroids orbit the sun and are larger than meteors. Meteors occur when a meteoroid enters the Earth’s atmosphere. It creates light in the sky.
Most asteroids are found in the asteroid belt but are also found all over the solar system.
Impact of Small Asteroids
Smaller and weaker asteroids hit the sun’s Roche Limit when they come into contact with it. However, since they’re smaller and weaker, they are unable to survive the sun’s gravitational pull and are ultimately destroyed in the process.
This means they are unable to leave the Roche Limit once they’ve made contact.
Impact of Large Asteroids
While larger and stronger are able to escape out of the Roche Limit, they have other things to be worried about. The solar radiation from the sun is strong enough to cut rocks in half.
Therefore, even though these asteroids make it out of the Roche Limit, they are unable to continue surviving because of the damages of coming into contact with the sun’s solar radiation.
The sun may flatten asteroids that make direct contact with it. This is because of the sun’s chaotic atmosphere. This causes an explosion that sends out waves of ultraviolet radiation into the solar system.
The Role of Weight
Comets and asteroids can cause significant damage to the impact zone on the basis of weight. If we look at Comet 67P, impact with the Earth would cause a significant amount of damage. However, when a comet like that makes an impact with the sun, it causes the same amount of damage a snowball would do to the person being hit.
Comets are made of ice and dust. However, the example stands when it comes to an asteroid too. The magnitude of the asteroid would not come even close to the damage the sun would cause to it.
How Does the Sun Destroy Asteroids?
Now that we know that asteroids wouldn’t survive coming into contact with the sun, let’s talk about why. There are many reasons for why an asteroid wouldn’t survive impact with the sun.
Power of Sunlight
The power of the sun’s light makes it hard for asteroids or comets to enter its line of sight. When an asteroid comes near the sun, the sun’s light’s power makes it impossible to enter the sun’s magnetic field.
Intense Gravity
The sun’s gravitational pull is extremely strong. Anything that enters into the sun’s gravitational pull is instantly destroyed. This includes asteroids, no matter their size. The gravitational pull of the sun flattens the asteroid completely.
Extreme Heat
It is no surprise to us that the sun is a very hot ball of gases. This protects it from destructive objects within the solar system, such as asteroids and comets. This heat causes the asteroids to disintegrate into its basic components, making them unable to survive.
Massive Size
Recalling how we’ve already talked about the sheer size of the sun, asteroids weighing any weight are no match for the sun. An asteroid is smaller than a speck of dust in front of the sun and is insignificant in power.
What Could Make an Impact on the Sun?
For an asteroid to make an actual impact on the sun, regardless of how small or big it is, it would need to first enter into the sun’s lower atmosphere. In this case, the asteroid would need to have a mass of at least 10^9 kilograms.
Once it’s entered the sun’s lower atmosphere, it would still need to stand against the sun’s incredible gravitational pull. This would make it accelerate to more than 600 kilometers per second. This would immediately flatten the asteroid into a pancake. This crash would create the same impact as a magnetic flare would.
For an asteroid to make proper impact, or even contact, it would need to survive this acceleration. This kind of survival is yet to be seen. It’s something that physics experts would need to study in detail. No such contact has been recorded to date.
Conclusion
While asteroids have always hit the sun, none have made a proper impact on the sun and its surrounding planets. For an asteroid to make a proper impact, it would need to survive different impenetrable layers of the sun.
This kind of impact hasn’t been recorded to date. Different kinds of asteroids have different survival rates. However, none make it to the sun’s core, or even close. We’ve always known the sun is one of the most powerful entities in the solar system.
To see an asteroid make an impact would truly be a historic event.
