Hubble spots an asteroid spout six comet-like tails.
Hubble spots an asteroid spout six comet-like tails.
Astronomers viewing our solar system’s asteroid belt with NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope have seen for the first time an asteroid with six comet-like tails of dust radiating from it like spokes on a wheel. Unlike all other known asteroids, which appear simply as tiny points of light, this asteroid, designated P/2013 P5, resembles a rotating lawn sprinkler. Astronomers are puzzled over the asteroid’s unusual appearance.
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Hubble spots an asteroid spout six comet-like tails.
Astronomers viewing our solar system’s asteroid belt with NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope have seen for the first time an asteroid with six comet-like tails of dust radiating from it like spokes on a wheel. Unlike all other known asteroids, which appear simply as tiny points of light, this asteroid, designated P/2013 P5, resembles a rotating lawn sprinkler. Astronomers are puzzled over the asteroid’s unusual appearance.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
Puzzled is quite the understatement,,, if anything I’ve ever seen looks like a text book sci-fi example of alien contact, this is it!!!
How can a tumbling asteroid/comet type body emit laser like beams? Also, the rotating lawn sprinkler example just doesn’t work, since those generate spiral arms, whereas these are straight out beams…Think of the old ball and mace, i.e. a spiked ball. This is really a must see…BTW, how is it the last couple of HST photos released of Comet Ison and this crazy asteroid have NO stars in the background whatsoever? How is this even possible? Of all the thousands of pics of comets and asteroids I’ve ever seen, I can never recall seeing any with no stars (or blurred star trails)in the background..Did Nasa/JPL photoshop these out? Very odd….
Clearskies!
The lack of stars in the background is merely a question of exposure and timing. I’ll give you three likely possibilities. 1. The asteroid and its tails is likely bright, requiring a relatively short exposure. Thus, the stars are likely too dim to stand out. 2. They probably enhanced the image digitally to bring out the asteroid and tails, which could very easily have made the stars less visible. 3. The asteroid is moving against a field of stars, and thus to keep the asteroid sharp the stars would move and become blurred, making them less visible as well.
All in all, not odd at all.
Paging Richard C Hoagland. LOL
LOL, ;) , I thought of the RCH connection AFTER I posted, hoped no one else would have thought of it…neverless , the HST photo I viewed on space.com of the asteroid? ,was unlike anything I’ve seen b4, perhaps because it was such a tight/close in photo, the tails go striaght out ,
clearskies!
mb
Perhaps Geoorge Noury will turn the show over to Hoagland yet again, for more insanity from the man.
I believe Art Bell washed his hands of Hoagland years ago. But who knows, he needs guests for his return to the airwaves show.