Asteroids Often Travel, and Strike, in Pairs

By Robert Roy Britt
www.space.com
11 April 2002

When Earth is next hit by an asteroid, the impact may well be a double whammy, which might in turn be blamed on Earth itself.

A new study estimates that 16 percent of asteroids that roam the region of space shared by Earth's orbit are actually double asteroids, called binaries. And researchers say these pairs may have been created by the rending effect of Earth's gravity, thought to tear asteroids apart when they make close approaches to the planet.

Other evidence shows that impacts on Earth sometimes involve a pair of craters.

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