P-2010 A2 Tail Implies Powerful Collision

Autor:

NASA, ESA, D. Jewitt (UCLA)

Attribution:

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Credit:

Hubblesite STScI-2010-07 (Suspected Asteroid Collision Leaves Odd X-Pattern of Trailing Debris)

Krótki link:

https://plwiki.pl/b/aa97c

źródło:

Wikimedia Commons

Wymiary:

2811 x 1920 Pixel (1550008 Bytes)

Opis:

Pictured above, Hubble indicates that P/2010 A2 is unlike any object ever seen before. At first glance, the object appears to have the tail of a comet. Close inspection, however, shows a 140-meter nucleus offset from the tail centre, very unusual structure near the nucleus, and no discernible gas in the tail. Knowing that the object orbits in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, a preliminary hypothesis that appears to explain all of the known clues is that P/2010 A2 is the debris left over from a recent collision between two small asteroids. If true, the collision likely occurred at over 15,000 kilometres per hour -- five times the speed of a rifle bullet -- and liberated energy in excess of a nuclear bomb. Pressure from sunlight would then spread out the debris into a trailing tail. Future study of P/2010 A2 may better indicate the nature of the progenitor collision and may help humanity better understand the early years of our Solar System, when many similar collisions occurred.

Licencja:

CC BY-SA 3.0

Warunki licencji:

Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0