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US-SPACE-ASTRONOMY
TO GO WITH AFP STORY US-SPACE-ASTRONOMY
This NASA Hubble Space Telescope set of images reveals a never-before-seen set of six comet-like tails radiating from a body in the asteroid belt, designated P/2013 P5. A strange asteroid that appears to have multiple rotating tails has been spotted with NASA's Hubble telescope between Mars and Jupiter, astronomers said November 7, 2013. Instead of appearing as a small point of light, like most asteroids, this one has half a dozen comet-like dust tails radiating out like spokes on a wheel, said the report in Astrophysical Journal Letters. "It's hard to believe we're looking at an asteroid," said lead investigator David Jewitt, a professor in the University of California Los Angeles Department of Earth and Space Sciences. "We were dumbfounded when we saw it. Amazingly, its tail structures change dramatically in just 13 days as it belches out dust."
This object has been named P/2013 P5, and astronomers believe it has been spewing dust for at least five months. The asteroid may have started spinning so fast that it began to disintegrate, scientists say.
They don't think the tails are a result of an impact, because that would cause dust to spray out all at once. AFP PHOTO/NASA/ESA/D.JEWITT/UCLA =RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE-MANDATORY CREDIT "AFP PHOTO/NASA/ESA/D.JEWITT/UCLA " - NO MARKETING NO ADVETISING CAMPAIGNS-DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS=
Its multiple tails were discovered in images taken by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope on September 10, 2013, after first being spotted with a telescope in Hawaii.
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AFP / Mediafax Foto |
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HANDOUT |
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7 Noiembrie 2013 |
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2781 x 1842 (1.24 MB) |
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