Question

It has been suggested that an asteroid, that when striking the Earth, vaporized a large quantity of soil, rocks, including itself. This resulted in a layer of material settling out relatively uniformly over the surface of the globe. Current evidence indicates 22% of the mass of the asteroid turned to dust and resulted in about 0.022 g/cm2 of the Earth’s surface being covered

a. If the asteroid had a density of about 2.0 g/cm3 and the area of the Earth is 510.1 trillion m2, calculate the mass of the asteroid.

b. Calculate the radius of the asteroid. What shape would you have to assume the asteroid is to do this calculation?

Answer 1