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File:P-2010 A2 Tail Implies Powerful Collision.jpg

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English: Pictured above, Hubble indicates that P/2010 A2 is unlike any object ever seen before. At first glance, the object appears to have the tail of a comet. Close inspection, however, shows a 140-meter nucleus offset from the tail centre, very unusual structure near the nucleus, and no discernible gas in the tail. Knowing that the object orbits in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, a preliminary hypothesis that appears to explain all of the known clues is that P/2010 A2 is the debris left over from a recent collision between two small asteroids. If true, the collision likely occurred at over 15,000 kilometres per hour -- five times the speed of a rifle bullet -- and liberated energy in excess of a nuclear bomb. Pressure from sunlight would then spread out the debris into a trailing tail. Future study of P/2010 A2 may better indicate the nature of the progenitor collision and may help humanity better understand the early years of our Solar System, when many similar collisions occurred.
Date (image date)
Source Hubblesite STScI-2010-07 (Suspected Asteroid Collision Leaves Odd X-Pattern of Trailing Debris)
Author NASA, ESA, D. Jewitt (UCLA)

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Date/TimeThumbnailDimensionsUserComment
current10:56, 3 February 2010Thumbnail for version as of 10:56, 3 February 20102,811 × 1,920 (1.48 MB)Cropbotupload cropped version, operated by User:Originalwana. Summary: cropped
10:54, 3 February 2010Thumbnail for version as of 10:54, 3 February 20103,000 × 2,400 (656 KB)Originalwana{{Information |Description={{en|1=Pictured above, Hubble indicates that P/2010 A2 is unlike any object ever seen before. At first glance, the object appears to have the tail of a comet. Close inspection, however, shows a 140-met

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