An aerospace railroad engineer and astronomer has made wave on societal media after correspond the math of an astronaut that seemed too good to be true .

Max Fagin , who has worked for NASA and SpaceX , as well as working as commander at the Mars Desert Research Station , wrote on Xthat an astronaut nonchalantly told him a antagonistic - intuitive statement last calendar week . That statement was that " it take 2 hours to orbit at the airfoil of any aim made of rock " .

This sound a bit odd to Fagin , but when he seem skeptical the cosmonaut simply smiled and told him to " check it yourself " – and so he did . First , he thought about the miserable area of ( mainly ) rocky object that we know about : Earth , Mars , and the Moon .

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All these orbits are around 2 hour , with the abject - world orbit full point being the quickest orbit . Fagin did the math and realized that the r and mass of an aim are unimportant when calculate low orbits . What is important is the concentration .

The astronaut was correct , it takes around 2 hours to revolve any object comprised of rock . Looking into it further , he realized that the same physical science keep asteroids above a certain size rotating no faster than once every two hours .

" Most asteroids larger than 200 meters [ 656 feet ] spin at a rate below that which would have an objective on its equator to have lightness , " a paper on the automobile mechanic of moving asteroidsexplains . " This translates to rotation rates below 12 revolutions / Clarence Day ( 2 hr / rev ) with most having rotation full stop of 4 hours or dandy . "

As Fagin explains , asteroids grow through collisions of smaller rocks and are held together ( often very loosely ) through their own somberness . Any of these object that reel quicker than once every two hours would force out material into orbit , until it shrinks or its gyration slows to the 2 - time of day limit defined by its density . Which , we ’re sure you ’ll check , is pretty cool to know .