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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."

30 of 134 comments (clear)

  1. Well, there's a simple explanation, really. by olsmeister · · Score: 5, Funny

    They're thrusters.

    1. Re:Well, there's a simple explanation, really. by Jonah+Hex · · Score: 3, Informative

      I figured it was pockets of something outgassing (is that the correct term?) as is spins. Different materials heat/etc different rates blah blah cue Bill Nye or Phil Platt please.

      --
      Horror & SciFi Erotic Nudes
    2. Re:Well, there's a simple explanation, really. by ackthpt · · Score: 3, Funny

      It's powered by beans.

      --

      A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
    3. Re:Well, there's a simple explanation, really. by somenickname · · Score: 5, Funny

      You joke but, earlier today there was a story about Starship Troopers on Slashdot. I know that if I still lived in Buenos Aires, I'd give serious thought to getting out of town for a while...

    4. Re:Well, there's a simple explanation, really. by speckman · · Score: 3, Insightful

      That was my first thought. Hmm. Every time they take a picture of this thing, it's got a jet going in a different direction.... I mean say we took a picture of a UFO way out in space... what would it look like at lowish resolution? a lump of something with jets coming out of it? Maybe. I guess the true test for that is if it's orbit is changing unexpectedly.

      Because seriously, even putting aside the possibility of already having taken video/shots of UFOs in space, on the planet, etc., what would our first encounter with one in space be like? A grainy photo of an anomalous object that we figure must be a comet, but boy is it acting strange...

    5. Re:Well, there's a simple explanation, really. by trout007 · · Score: 2

      You are more right than you know. There is an explaination that asteroids and comets have tails due to electric discharges as they move through voltage potentials in the solar system.
      http://youtu.be/De9b8Z94nQk

      --
      I love Jesus, except for his foreign policy.
  2. And by "Dumbfounds" by JBMcB · · Score: 2

    ... they mean it's something new scientists haven't seen before, and haven't figured out yet.

    Kinda like the same way you meet someone you don't know, you are dumbfounded by them.

    --
    My Other Computer Is A Data General Nova III.
  3. It ain't no swastika. by 140Mandak262Jamuna · · Score: 4, Interesting
    Carl Sagan's book Cosmos, theorizes that sometime within the last 10 or 20 thousand years, a comet with four bright tails, came to wards the Earth in an end-on view. That would look like a Swastika. That shape has been recorded in Chinese manuscripts of comet descriptions. It must have made profound impact on human psyche because of so many associations of the Swastika symbol with supernatural and power.

    So I was looking for some spectacular six tailed swastika there, but, meh, some smokey trails.

    --
    sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
    1. 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.'"
  4. Fox Comet! by ElectraFlarefire · · Score: 3, Funny

    Space Kitsune!
    Off to earn it's last three tails.

  5. Why is being called an asteroid? by ceview · · Score: 2

    Why is this being reported as an asteroid when the original research paper says that it is a comet? http://iopscience.iop.org/2041-8205/778/1/L21/article What is the difference between a comet and an asteroid?

    1. Re:Why is being called an asteroid? by rubycodez · · Score: 2

      Called both in the article, it was thought it was a comet (icy body outgassing because of sun) but then:

        "As an inner-belt asteroid and probable Flora family member, the object is likely to be highly metamorphosed and unlikely to contain ice. The protracted period of dust release appears inconsistent with an impact origin, but may be compatible with a body that is losing mass through a rotational instability. "

      Asteroids are minor planets of three main types: stony, metallic or carbon-rich

  6. How to detect a really bad science writer... by RyanFenton · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Why do so many of these stories have things like "dumbfounded" or "baffled" in the title? Are these scientists just standing there, exclaiming to everyone who will listen - "I'm just so gosh-darn BAFFLED!" Not from any scientist I've met - but it's always reported as such, as if unknowns weren't a crucial element of the whole, you know, SCIENTIFIC PROCESS.

    Yeesh.

    Ryan Fenton

    1. Re:How to detect a really bad science writer... by glwtta · · Score: 5, Interesting

      They certainly don't use the word "baffled", but for all the scientist I know, the standard response to new data is "WTF is this shit?!"

      --
      sic transit gloria mundi
    2. Re:How to detect a really bad science writer... by MyHair · · Score: 4, Funny

      Try this one weird trick to understand....

    3. Re:How to detect a really bad science writer... by NoNonAlphaCharsHere · · Score: 2

      "coondoggie" (the submitter) is Michael Cooney, the NetworkWorld blogger/author. You do the math. Me, I miss Roland Piquepaille every time I get tricked into following one of these "hey click on my blog" submissions.

    4. Re:How to detect a really bad science writer... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      I much prefer when they say "WTF is this shit?!"

      In my experience when a scientist or an engineer says "Interesting!" it is generally a good idea to step back or GTFO, it never turns out well.

    5. Re:How to detect a really bad science writer... by Chelloveck · · Score: 3, Informative

      Well, in this case it's a direct quote from the lead investigator.

      "We were literally dumbfounded when we saw it," said lead investigator David Jewitt of the University of California at Los Angeles in a statement.

      And while I'm not sure a scientist would say "I'm just so gosh-darn BAFFLED!" I have heard them say, "Beats the hell outta me." I guess "Scientists baffled by new sighting" is a more accurate headline than "Scientists get the hell beaten out of them by new sighting."

      --
      Chelloveck
      I give up on debugging. From now on, SIGSEGV is a feature.
  7. 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.

  8. Re:Science. by rossdee · · Score: 3, Insightful

    So is it accelerating or decelerating consistently?

    And if so is it heading towards us?

    We'll have to get a team of older movie stars (like Bruce Willis, Clint Eastwood, John Travolta and William Shatner) to intercept it

  9. Re:And... by fightinfilipino · · Score: 4, Insightful

    this is not just knowledge for knowledge's sake. this is part of efforts to observe planetoids and asteroids to determine if there's risk of collision with Earth, determining feasibility of mining asteroids for resources, or even plain and simple adding to data sets observing how planetoids and asteroids interact with space

    a lot of basic science isn't about finding groundbreaking stuff all the time. in fact, if you're doing research only looking for the "groundbreaking stuff", you're doing science wrong. much of science is straight observation. and it is USEFUL.

  10. Re:And... by glwtta · · Score: 2

    And no, this is not a troll or flamebait - it's justified, rational criticism.

    Just saying it doesn't make it true.

    --
    sic transit gloria mundi
  11. What is this? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    I clicked the link and it's just an image of two guys sitting in a car. What is this about? Why do you waste our time like this? I don't think it was very nice.

    Thank you for reading this complaint.

  12. Seems they didn't all go beyond the rim by Hamsterdan · · Score: 2

    http://static2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100114214048/babylon5/images/a/a4/FirstoneShip_04.png

    --
    I've got better things to do tonight than die.
  13. Why tails not spirals? by arthurpaliden · · Score: 3, Interesting

    If it was spinning then would the discharge be in a spiral(s) rather that individual tails?

    --
    Undetectable Steganography? Yep, there's an app fo
    1. Re:Why tails not spirals? by Agent0013 · · Score: 2

      If it was spinning so fast you could not see the spiralling, then you would not have separate tails either. They would all blend together into one big blurred tail. I think it is electrical arc machining due to difference in voltage potential in the object and it's location in space. Electric Universe theory keeps popping up everytime I see these new discoveries in space.

      I especially loved the article linked from that one about the "X" shaped asteroid. They say it must have been a collision with an oddly shaped object, like how a brick makes an oddly shaped splash. Which I have never seen! Splashes in water are always round no matter the shape of the object. And let's pretend they are correct, and the shape makes a difference. Then that destroys their explanation of impact craters always being round no matter the direction of impact because the force is so powerful it explodes into a round shape anyway. But when it's a 18,000 KPH projectile hitting an asteroid in space, then our rules about explosion shape does not apply anymore?! Who are they trying to kid with this crap! Or is it a cover-up for alien technology and they can't actually admit the truth?

      --

      -- ssoorrrryy,, dduupplleexx sswwiittcchh oonn.. -Quote found on actual fortune cookie.
  14. Re:And... by ColdWetDog · · Score: 3, Interesting

    What do you want? Something engraved in stone tablets? Gold Tablets? Carefully painted in whole wheat linguini?

    Anything not coming directly from your deity of choice is going to be a rationalization. Get used to it.

    --
    Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
  15. mod up^ by globaljustin · · Score: 2

    I like how an AC took the time to politely chastise a logged-in griefer posting sub-moronic Reddit type shit...

    Good on you, AC...and I'd give a +1 informative for sparing any of us the clickbait and telling us what it links to

    --
    Thank you Dave Raggett
  16. Re:It'd be nice to have some more/better images. by Ol+Biscuitbarrel · · Score: 2

    This has a few more: Found: A never-before-seen asteroid with six comet-like tails - latimes.com

  17. Re:How do they know by Virtucon · · Score: 2

    Educated guess? I think it's safe to assume that since it's been observed for awhile that this particular asteroid is between a few months old and 4.6 billion years old. Presumably the paper when published will validate the 200,000 year thought. Maybe somebody was playing pool with planets 200,000 years ago and we're just now finding out about it?

    --
    Harrison's Postulate - "For every action there is an equal and opposite criticism"