Battered asteroid Lutetia revealed as ancient baby planet that never fully formed

A battered, pockmarked object floating in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter has been revealed as an ancient fledging planet, formed when Earth was in its infancy.
The European Space Agency’s comet-hunting probe Rosetta flew past the asteroid Lutetia last year and studied it with thermal and spectroscopic sensors.

What it discovered is that Lutetia is no ordinary asteroid – but actually a primitive ‘mini-world’ that used to be round and may even have tried to grow a metal heart like a fully formed planet.

Astronomers believe that Lutetia should really be described as a planetesimal, a body formed from clumps of cosmic grains.


These have the potential to grow into planets, because once they reach around 3,000 feet in width their gravity grows strong enough to attract other masses.

Read more: [link to www.dailymail.co.uk]