Astroids

Research papers on asteroids will often address their threat to the earth and their relationship to the earth. Common characteristics of asteroids should also be discussed in your research paper. Paper Masters can custom write you a research paper on any aspect of asteroids.

Looking at the night sky, one cannot help but wonder what an asteroid is. the government has a website in which you can learn all about the current state of active asteroids. Although the name explicitly means "small planet" what designations delineate the asteroid from an actual planet? A research paper on asteroids discusses the difference between actual planets and asteroids - relative size. What is perhaps most interesting about asteroids is that while they have been acknowledged by modern science for more than 200 years, information available about them is relatively scant.

Research on Asteroids Threat to Earth

Considering the fact that these rock prove to be such an omnipresent threat to the earth, it is surprising that more data has not been collected regarding these celestial bodies. Until the threat becomes pervasive, however, it is reasonable to assume that asteroids will remain a ubiquitous unknown.

The characteristics of an asteroid are as follows:

• Asteroids reflect the light emitted from the sun
• They are star-like, shiny objects
• Irregular in shape

Asteroids and Their Relationship to the Earth

A number of parameters effect life on earth and these are subject to fluctuation, fluctuation which has potentially catastrophic implications. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) (2007) has noted that recent empirical studies using the CERES instrument have shown a decrease in the average albedo-the fraction of incident radiation striking an object that is reflected back into space--for short wavelength radiation of 0.0027 over the span of 2000-2004. It is not known what has caused this decrease. NASA reports that the average albedo of the earth is known to be about 0.30 and that a drop of 0.01 would have a warming effect equal to a doubling of the carbon dioxide now in the atmosphere-which is to say that it would cause a spectacular and disruptive alteration of the earth's climate. We site this as an example of how narrow the band is with respect to conditions necessary for "life as we know it" to continue.

Life is a temporary triumph over entropy. Living organisms are highly ordered, highly complex aggregations of matter. They cannot exist except under very special circumstances of temperature, pressure, wavelength of incident radiation, etc. If the dynamic equilibrium that supports "life as we know it" breaks down, then "life as we know it" is apt to disappear. We know of mass extinctions that happened in the past. Because the fault tolerance of life is narrow, and because we know that there is nothing that prevents conditions from changing if certain parameters are altered-in some cases the alteration can be very slight-this argues that we should exercise the utmost caution with respect to our specie's actions as they effect the earth. A certain wise conservatism is in order. If we even suspect that our actions can produce dangerous changes in the balance of forces that make this planet livable for us, we must modify our actions so that this does not happen. Hence, those who insist that "global warming is just a hypothesis" and call for no let-up in current practices respecting greenhouse gas emissions, are playing a risky game. We must not ask for the nth degree of proof when the stakes are as high as they are respecting global warming.