Asteroids. Born of Flame

«My book is the history of the formation and evolution of the Solar System and its most numerous inhabitants — asteroids. We will dive into an exciting epic spanning billions of years, where there was solar fire, grand collisions, knowledge, the joy of discoveries, and the unraveling of cosmic mysteries — everything that led us to modern knowledge about our shared home — the Solar System». — Leonid Elenin, Russian astronomer, science popularizer, discoverer of 6 comets and over 370 asteroids, author of the books «Comets. Wanderers of the Solar System» (shortlist for the «Educator» award 2024), «The Bortle Limit»

In this book you will learn:
- about the discovery of the first asteroid Ceres and its discoverer — Giuseppe Piazzi, a priest who became an astronomer;
- about the types and classes of asteroids: what they are made of, how their physical and chemical properties differ, and whether they are all alone;
- about the asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, which we now call the Main Belt;
- whether the planet Phaeton really existed and what modern scientists think about the mythical objects of the Solar System;
- whether asteroids are indeed a creeping threat in the dark for our planet, what we currently know about it, and how we came to this knowledge;
- how to discover your own asteroid and why it is easier than discovering a comet;
- how scientists observe the starry sky in large professional observatories and whether they see everything there;
- whether it is difficult to land on an asteroid and if it is possible to get into it with a cosmic «torpedo»;
- how many planets there are in the Solar System, why Planet X excites the minds of scientists, and how they are trying to unravel this mystery.