Astronomers dumbfounded by discovery of a new type of space object

The object in these photographs captured by Hubble is not a comet. It's something that no astronomer has ever seen before, according to NASA: An asteroid with six comet-like tails that isn't moving like a comet and it's not made of ice. It's just hanging up there, rotating like a crazy space spider.

According to lead investigator David Jewitt of the University of California at Los Angeles, "we were literally dumbfounded when we saw it [in the solar system's asteroid belt] We were completely knocked out."

NASA says that "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."

Astronomers dumbfounded by discovery of a new type of space object



So what is it?

Apparently scientists do not know exactly what the object is, but they are theorising that it could be a fragment of an asteroid which had a collision 200 million years ago:

Jewitt said it appears P/2013 P5 is a fragment of a larger asteroid that broke apart in a collision roughly 200 million years ago. There are many collision fragments in orbits similar to P/2013 P5's. Meteorites from these bodies show evidence of having been heated to as much as 1,500 degrees Fahrenheit. This means the asteroid likely is composed of metamorphic rocks and does not hold any ice as a comet does.

That being said, NASA states that they "do not believe the tails are the result of an impact with another asteroid because they have not seen a large quantity of dust blasted into space all at once."

So, any theories ATS?

reply to post by daaskapital


A flag and star for presentation...but am sorry to break the news, those horrid words, those sighs of regret made real: there is an earlier thread: www.abovetopsecret.com...

Oh wait, this is alternative news. Never mind. The more the merrier is my understanding.

Hubble has my loyalty and devotion.

Awesome! Thanks to Hubble, it ended up here on ATS. I kinda hope this thread gets rollin cos I wana know what it REALLY IS

Aleister
reply to post by daaskapital

 

A flag and star for presentation...but am sorry to break the news, those horrid words, those sighs of regret made real: there is an earlier thread.

Argh haha. Thanks mate. Yeah, i'm having troubles with the search engine.

reply to post by daaskapital

So what is it?

Find out here: www.abovetopsecret.com...

reply to post by daaskapital


It is literally a UFO.

Its a farting comet...

Its a supergiant Spacedust-Man wearing one of those Headtorch things.

It's my x wife trying to park!

AfterInfinity
reply to post by daaskapital

 

It is literally a UFO.

Nah - it's not flying, and now it is identified - it is P/2013 P5

reply to post by daaskapital


The answer is quite obvious, it's not an asteroid, it's Gamera, the flying Turtle

Its space tumble weed in the wild wild space.

reply to post by daaskapital


Could it be an asteroid that somehow heated up and is venting from multiple directions making it spin/move erratically?

GogoVicMorrow
reply to post by daaskapital

 

Could it be an asteroid that somehow heated up and is venting from multiple directions making it spin/move erratically?

I understood that to be the very essence of the prevailing opinion..., but I could be wrong.

reply to post by GogoVicMorrow


Is it an asteroid that got caught into some kind of gravitational whirlpool? And if it is, what would "knock" it back out and into a straighter line orbit?

Where is this in space? Way on the other side of our sun? Or out by what other planet, or star?

reply to post by daaskapital


So it's just hanging up there, not moving?

What if, and I know it's crazy, it's the back side of a black hole??

Their here..

reply to post by HooHaa


Don't you mean they're? As in they-are?

Their, here is a description of ownership. Their(ownership), here(object).

I'm sorry I can not understand what it is you are trying to communicate with us.

AbleEndangered
I wonder if it is the same one as

It too had 6 tails and did fly by of Earth.

Wikipedia Reference Great Comet of 1744
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Comet_of_1744
en.wikipedia.org...

or one that was recorded like that by the Ancient Asians.

I know there is a thread around here about it.

Just dropping my 2 cents here as well from similar thread.

I dunno. It makes more sense for a big rock that's spent millennia crashing into other big rocks to sit more or less THERE in space, spinning like mad, spewing and outgassing... errr, gas and stuff, than to continuously do massive loops orbiting around a sun, all the time losing mass and worrying people every 76 years or whatever.

I never really understood this whole comet thing. It's like a movie plot more than a real life thing.

JMHO.