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...from much closer: HST image of the results of an asteroid collision discovered in January. You can see the 140 m wide impacted asteroid at the end of the debris field, the end of which has a strange structure (presumably containing the biggest chunks thrown out by the collision).



*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.

by DoDo on Tue Feb 9th, 2010 at 02:50:30 PM EST
[ Parent ]
I saw that! Glad you posted it. I was too tired. Were something like that to happen to a several kilometer diameter asteroid that could be a way to get a near Earth encounter, or worse.

As the Dutch said while fighting the Spanish: "It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."
by ARGeezer (ARGeezer a in a circle eurotrib daught com) on Tue Feb 9th, 2010 at 05:49:57 PM EST
[ Parent ]
I'm sorry but I can't really tell what I'm looking at. Is it comet tail ? Or is it a picture of an impact crater somewhere ?

keep to the Fen Causeway
by Helen (lareinagal at yahoo dot co dot uk) on Tue Feb 9th, 2010 at 06:07:38 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Um...

You can see the 140 m wide impacted asteroid at the end of the debris field, the end of which has a strange structure (presumably containing the biggest chunks thrown out by the collision).

The small spot at the lower left end, which is the bright spot in the magnified inset, is the 140 m wide asteroid. The beginning of the comet-like diffuse thing is the debris kicked up, and the 'tail' is light dust, moving further with the help of solar wind, direct radiation pressure and the Yarkovsky effect (anisotropic thermal re-radiation of the absorbed sunlight).

When the object was discovered, it was indeed first thought to be a comet with a completely evaporated core, but a comet looked less likely when its orbit was found to be a regular one in the main asteroid belt. Then a ground-based large telescope discovered the small asteroid next to the tail, and Hubble revealed the X-shaped mark made up by the larger pieces of the derbis.

*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.

by DoDo on Wed Feb 10th, 2010 at 06:17:01 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Clearly, it's a Klingon spaceship

"Ce qui vient au monde pour ne rien troubler ne mérite ni égards ni patience." René Char
by Melanchthon on Wed Feb 10th, 2010 at 08:49:01 AM EST
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