Six-tailed asteroid stuns scientists

11:18 • 09.11.13
Science/tech

Nasa astronomers have announced the discovery of a “weird and freakish object” by the Hubble telescope - the first ever six-tailed asteroid, found spinning through space between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, The Independent reported.


"We were literally dumbfounded when we saw it," said David Jewitt, lead investigator on the project and professor at the University of California. "Even more amazing, its tail structures change dramatically in just 13 days as it belches out dust. That also caught us by surprise. It's hard to believe we're looking at an asteroid."


Whilst comets are well-known for their tails -trails of vaporized dust and water, thrown off from the ice-coated objects as they pass through solar winds - rocky-bodied asteroids do not produce any trace and previously only been spotted as single points of light.


Although the astronomers do not have a clear answer of why the object, designated P/2013 P5, has six-tails, they have speculated that its rate of rotation may have reached the point where it starts disintegrating.

 

What could have caused P/2013 P5 to begin spinning so violently is also unknown. Impact with another asteroid has been ruled out, as this event would have created a large amount of dust from the impact.


It was first spotted as “unusually fuzzy-looking object” by the Pan-STARRS survey telescope in Hawaii and on further investigation its multiple tails were identified by images from the Hubble space telescope on 10 September.


However, when Hubble took a second look on 23 September they found its appearance had changed. “We were completely knocked out," said Jewitt. 

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