NASA’S Hubble Captures First Images Of Aftermath Of Possible Asteroid Collision
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NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has captured the first snapshots of a suspected asteroid collision. The images show a bizarre X-shaped object at the head of a comet-like trail of material.
In January, astronomers began using Hubble to track the object for five months. They thought they had witnessed a fresh asteroid collision, but were surprised to learn the collision occurred in early 2009.
“We expected the debris field to expand dramatically, like shrapnel flying from a hand grenade,” said astronomer David Jewitt of the University of California in Los Angeles, who is a leader of the Hubble observations. “But what happened was quite the opposite. We found that the object is expanding very, very slowly.”
The peculiar object, dubbed P/2010 A2, was found cruising around the asteroid belt, a reservoir of millions of rocky bodies between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. It is estimated modest-sized asteroids smash into each other about once a year. When the objects collide, they inject dust into interplanetary space. But until now, astronomers have relied on models to make predictions about the frequency of these collisions and the amount of dust produced.
Catching colliding asteroids is difficult because large impacts are rare while small ones, such as the one that produced P/2010 A2, are exceedingly faint. The two asteroids that make up P/2010 A2 were unknown before the collision because they were too faint to be noticed. The collision itself was unobservable because of the asteroids’ position in relation to the sun.
About 10 or 11 months later, in January 2010, the Lincoln Near-Earth Research (LINEAR) Program Sky Survey spotted the comet-like tail produced by the collision. But only Hubble discerned the X pattern, offering unequivocal evidence that something stranger than a comet outgassing had occurred.
Although the Hubble images give compelling evidence for an asteroid collision, Jewitt says he still does not have enough information to rule out other explanations for the peculiar object. In one such scenario, a small asteroid’s rotation increases from solar radiation and loses mass, forming the comet-like tail.
“These observations are important because we need to know where the dust in the solar system comes from, and how much of it comes from colliding asteroids as opposed to ‘outgassing’ comets,” Jewitt said. “We also can apply this knowledge to the dusty debris disks around other stars, because these are thought to be produced by collisions between unseen bodies in the disks. Knowing how the dust was produced will yield clues about those invisible bodies.”
The Hubble images, taken from January to May 2010 with the telescope’s Wide Field Camera 3, reveal a point-like object about 400 feet wide, with a long, flowing dust tail behind a never-before-seen X pattern. Particle sizes in the tail are estimated to vary from about 1/25th of an inch to an inch in diameter.
The 400-foot-wide object in the Hubble image is the remnant of a slightly larger precursor body. Astronomers think a smaller rock, perhaps 10 to 15 feet wide, slammed into the larger one. The pair probably collided at high speed, about 11,000 mph, which smashed and vaporized the small asteroid and stripped material from the larger one. Jewitt estimates that the violent encounter happened in February or March 2009 and was as powerful as the detonation of a small atomic bomb.
Sunlight radiation then swept the debris behind the remnant asteroid, forming a comet-like tail. The tail contains enough dust to make a ball 65 feet wide, most of it blown out of the bigger body by the impact-caused explosion. The science journal Nature will publish the findings in the Oct. 14 issue.
“Once again, Hubble has revealed unexpected phenomena occurring in our celestial ‘back yard,” said Eric Smith, Hubble Program scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “Though it’s often Hubble’s deep observations of the universe or beautiful images of glowing nebulae in our galaxy that make headlines, observations like this of objects in our own solar system remind us how much exploration we still have to do locally.”
Astronomers do not have a good explanation for the X shape. The crisscrossed filaments at the head of the tail suggest that the colliding asteroids were not perfectly symmetrical. Material ejected from the impact, therefore, did not make a symmetrical pattern, a bit like the ragged splash made by throwing a rock into a lake. Larger particles in the X disperse very slowly and give this structure its longevity.
Astronomers plan to use Hubble again next year to view the object. Jewitt and his colleagues hope to see how far the dust has been swept back by the sun’s radiation and how the mysterious X-shaped structure has evolved.
For images, movies, and more information about asteroid encounter P/2010 A2, visit: http://hubblesite.org/news/2010/34 and http://www.nasa.gov/hubble
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Hubble Space telescope images “Russell's Teapot” asteroid
BALTIMORE/PASADENA – Scientists of STScI working with the Hubble Space telescope published an image of what will be the most enigmatic discovery in recent years. Triggered by the NEO project discovery an object that was rapidly approaching earth with an initial scheduled impact date of 21 december 2012, The Hubble team managed to capture a detailed image which revealed that the object has the shape of a teapot.
Improved orbit calculations corrected that the dreaded impact will not occur, but instead will miss the earth at a distanse of only 6000 km. The irregular object with a diameter of 30 meters, which is nicknamed “Russel's Teapot”, has an elliptical orbit between Mars and Earth. The surface reveals remarkably little impact craters and resembles more the sedimentary surface of Mars. Richard Gowk of Space Telescope Science Institute explains: “Plenty of martian surface debris has already landed on earth, in particular Antarctica is a treasure trove of martian rocks, being the result of a big asteroid impact on the martian surface, where martian material was hurdled into space.”
The discovery prompted a reaction from the 2012 pole shift cult. They warned that: “Russell's teapot was predicted by Bernard Russell and is the ultimate proof that God exists. The sumerians knew it's existense under the name of Niburu and the Mayans predicted it's impact. So the new 'improved' orbit measurements must be wrong, and is a conspiracy by the UN to prevent worldwide food riots. Our organization is therefore with extra vigour continuing our preparations for rapture day which will take place on 21 december 2012. The day will give rise to major tsumamis and a pole shift which will drive the earth into the next ice age, as calculated by Alfred Einstien.”
Yeah, really got your facts straight there! And who’s Alfred Einstein, Albert’s dumber brother?
As the name Russell is already given to asteroid number 1762 in honour of the astronomer Henry Norris Russell, the object will be officially known as 210455 Teapot.
Astronomers have discovered the oldest and most distant object in the universe – a galaxy so far away that its light has taken 13.2 billion years to reach earth. The cluster of stars, dust and gas was spotted by Nasa's Hubble space telescope as it orbited Earth.