NASA's Hubble Spots Mysterious Asteroid 'P/2013 P5' with Six Comet-Like Tails

NASA's Hubble Space telescope spots a never- before-seen object in the asteroid belt of our solar system. The unusual- looking asteroid has six radiating tails, similar to a rotating lawn sprinkler.

Using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers have detected an unusually fuzzy-looking asteroid with six comet-like tails of dust radiating from it similar to the spokes of the wheel.

 The newly detected asteroid dubbed P/2013 P5 is different from the other known asteroid that appears as a tiny speck of light.

"We were literally dumbfounded when we saw it," lead investigator David Jewitt of the University of California at Los Angeles, said in a statement. "Even more amazing, its tail structures change dramatically in just 13 days as it belches out dust. That also caught us by surprise. It's hard to believe we're looking at an asteroid."

The astronomers noticed that for the past five months, the newly detected asteroid P/2013 P5 had been emitting dust periodically. The astronomers claim that such an unusual phenomenon is possible when the asteroid's rate of rotation increases to a point that its surface begins to drift apart.

Astronomers are certain that the tails of dust emitted by P/2013 P5 are not due to an impact with another asteroid. That's because massive quantity of dust blasted into the space at once, which appear on collision of asteroids, was not visible.

The discovery of the asteroid was announced on August 27 using the Pan-STARRS survey telescope that is located in Hawaii. But the tails of the fuzzy looking object was detected on Sept.10. when Hubble captured a more detailed image of the asteroid.

On capturing the 1,400 foot-wide active asteroid again on September 23, the astronomers noticed that the asteroid had dawned on a new image appearing as if the entire object had swung around. This new look completely stumped the astronomers.

Later the mystery of the spooky tail was solved by team member Jessica Agarwal of the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Lindau, Germany. With the help of careful modelling, she showed that the tails are a result of the series of impulsive dust ejection events that occurred on April 15, July 18, July 14, August 8, August 26 and September 4.  The radiation pressure from the sun is solely responsible for stretching the dust into streamers that was noticed by Hubble.  

They assume that the radiation pressure spun P/2013 P5 completely. Due to the increase in the rotation rate the asteroid lost its gravity as a result of which it could not stay together. Due to this, the dust makes its way towards the equatorial region of the asteroid, shatters and falls off and further drifts into the space to form a tail.

The astronomers calculate that so far nearly 100-1000 tons of dust has been lost. The mass of dust is actually the small fraction of the asteroid P/2013 P5 main mass. Based on the width of the nucleus i.e. 1,400 ft wide, the astronomers confirm that the asteroid's nucleus is thousands time more massive than the amount of dust ejected.

The astronomers plan on continuously monitoring the asteroid to check whether the dust leaves the object in the equatorial plane and if it does, it would provide a strong evidence for a rotational breakup. They hope to calculate the true spin rate of P/2013 P5.

Jewitt says, looks like P/2013 P5 is a piece of the larger asteroid that ripped apart 200 million years ago due to collision. Similar to this asteroid, there as several collision fragments in orbit. Meteorites from this body heat-up to as much as 1.500 degree Fahrenheit. This clearly indicates that the asteroid could be composed of metamorphic rocks and lacks ice that is seen in comet.

Jewiit concludes saying, "In astronomy, where you find one, you eventually find a whole bunch more. This is just an amazing object to us, and almost certainly the first of many more to come."

The details of the asteroid were documented online in the Nov. 7 issue of the Astrophysical Journal Letters.