Hubble Detects Rare, Strange Asteroid Break Up; NASA Remains Perplexed
Catalina and Pan-STARRS were the first to spot the crumbling rock, which at the time appeared as a “fuzzy object in the asteroid belt.” Following this observation was Hawaii’s WM Keck Observatory. This observation revealed “three co-moving bodies embedded in a dusty envelope that is nearly the diameter of Earth.”
While the break up of comets is common and not surprising, the break up of an asteroid has left scientists at NASA contemplating the explanations.
“This is a rock. Seeing it fall apart before our eyes is pretty amazing,” said David Jewitt, as the University of California, Los Angeles.
As the asteroid orbits the Sun at 17 km per second (38,000 miles an hour), the chunks split off from the asteroid move around 0.5 meters per second (1.1 miles an hour).
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