Question about asteroid

Are you talking about an asteroid? An asteroid has very little gravity, but I suppose it *could* have a layer of dust on it.

As far as seeing, where is the asteroid? One as close to the sun as the Earth would be quite bright on the side facing the sun, quite dark on the side not.

I thought you mean how it felt emotionally until I hit the sand...

It depends on the asteroid. If it's in a fairly stable location (like in an asteroid belt), it's possible it might have sand or piles of smaller rocks. Asteroids can be big, so they can have enough gravity for stuff to stay on them. They can even have moons in orbit around them.

I'd suggest looking at some real asteroids and picking one near what you want.

Yeah, this would be one of those times when you start googling and wikipedia-ing and doing all the research you possibly can. Because you have to get the facts first, and then you have to use your imagination to translate reality into something that will work for your story.

And this may sound snarky, but why are you asking us? I doubt anyone here has been on an asteroid lately... so we'd have to research it, just like you. It's your story, so you really need to do the legwork. The more you learn, the more details you'll be able to bring to your story.

I'm going to move this to the Story Research section. It's not kidlit-specific, so I don't think it needs to be in this room.

Also, what's up with the link? You give us no context for what the link is even about (so I won't be clicking it). If you intend that to be part of your signature, please go to your user CP and create a signature. As it is, it smells a bit like spam.

You say "on" an asteroid. I don't think you fully appreciate how low the gravity on an asteroid would be (as evidenced by your follow-up about sand). Even if it's spinning fairly slowly you'd be thrown off. The gravity is really really negligible. Simply taking a normal 'Earth' step would be enough to propel you out into open space.

You've been watching too many Michael Bruckheimer movies methinks.

Drachen Jager said:

You say "on" an asteroid. I don't think you fully appreciate how low the gravity on an asteroid would be (as evidenced by your follow-up about sand). Even if it's spinning fairly slowly you'd be thrown off.

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Well, no. Most asteroids, aside from the few really big ones, have been characterized as "floating rubble piles". If one rotated so rapidly that a human would be thrown off into space, it would tear itself apart.

Drachen Jager said:

The gravity is really really negligible.

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Well, no. Small, but not negligible, for the reason cited above.

Drachen Jager said:

Simply taking a normal 'Earth' step would likely be enough to propel you out into open space.

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For small ones, here you are correct. Whatever the G-force of a human taking a step is, if the asteroid had a gravitational attraction less than that, yes, you could step off into space.

As far as "sand" goes, highly unlikely. What we normally consider "sand" is sediment having a grain size between 1/16 and 2 mm. Sand forms on Earth due to geological processes that simply don't exist on asteroids. They are all far too small to retain an atmosphere. The major force shaping the surface of an asteroid is meteoric impact, as evidenced by the craters visible on them.

caw

Uh, oh. I think I might have goofed my first chapter on the SF book. It's too late--its up for a free read. I do have a ship gently nudging a rubble pile asteroid a few degrees out of its trajectory. The rogue is only about 1,200 feet long, kind of shaped like a thick dog bone. I might have gotten some of physics wrong with this--leat of all geology and inertia. Any contact with such an object (at that small size) would probably cause it to fracture is multiple pieces. I don't think my grav is heavy enough for it. Guh.

Thanks, Robert. You see, you are a damn fine thinker and researcher!

bkwriter said:

Ok, this is just a test

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Looks like it worked.