Friday, September 22, 2017

Hubble Reveals an Odd Object In the Asteroid Belt Between Mars and Jupiter - The Daily Galaxy --Great Discoveries Channel

Hubble Reveals an Odd Object In the Asteroid Belt Between Mars and Jupiter - The Daily Galaxy --Great Discoveries Channel:
Image result for xfile"In September 2016, just before the asteroid 288P made its closest approach to the Sun, it was close enough to Earth to allow astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope to observe the intriguing characteristics of an unusual type of object in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter: two asteroids orbiting each other and exhibiting comet-like features, including a bright coma and a long tail.
This is the first known binary asteroid also classified as a comet.
The images of 288P, which is located in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, revealed that it was actually not a single object, but two asteroids of almost the same mass and size, orbiting each other at a distance of about 100 kilometers..."

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