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Bizarre Six-Tailed Asteroid Dumbfounds Scientists

Posted by samzenpus on from the six-tails-are-better-than-one dept.

coondoggie writes "Many images from deep space are so cool, weird and unusual it is hard to believe they are real sometimes. This is one of them. Astronomers looking deep into the asteroid belt through NASA's Hubble Space Telescope say they have spotted an asteroid, designated P/2013 P5, with six comet-like tails of dust radiating from it like spokes on a wheel or a spinning garden sprinkler."

2 of 134 comments (clear)

  1. better science by iggymanz · · Score: 4, Informative

    comets are icy and have tails when close to sun due to outgassing.

    Asteroids (minor planets that are stony, metallic, or carbon compound based) can have tails for various reasons, some covered in the article.

  2. Re:It ain't no swastika. by drinkypoo · · Score: 4, Informative

    The swastika was an important symbol before Germany was a country.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"