The Unexpected Tails of Asteroid P5
Explanation:
What is happening to asteroid P/2013 P5?
No one is sure.
For reasons unknown,
the asteroid
is now sporting not one but six discernible tails.
The
above images were taken two months ago by the orbiting
Hubble Space Telescope
and show the rapidly changing
dust streams.
It is not even known when P5 began displaying such unusual
tails.
Were the main belt
asteroid struck by a large meteor,
it would be expected to sport a single
dust tail.
Possible explanations include that light pressure from the Sun
is causing the
asteroid to
rotate
increasingly rapidly,
which in turn causes pools of previously gravity-bound dust to
spin off.
Future observations should better indicate
how P5 and its dust plumes are
evolving and so provide more clues to its nature -- and to how many similar
asteroids might exist.
Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell
(USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings,
and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris.
Specific
rights apply.
A service of:
LHEA at
NASA /
GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
