Hubble Detects Mysterious Spaceship-Shaped Object Traveling at 11,000MPH

www.nasa.gov...

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has observed a mysterious X-shaped debris pattern and trailing streamers of dust that suggest a head-on collision between two asteroids. Astronomers have long thought the asteroid belt is being ground down through collisions, but such a smashup has never been seen before. Asteroid collisions are energetic, with an average impact speed of more than 11,000 miles per hour, or five times faster than a rifle bullet. The comet-like object imaged by Hubble, called P/2010 A2, was first discovered by the Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research, or LINEAR, program sky survey on Jan. 6. New Hubble images taken on Jan. 25 and 29 show a complex X-pattern of filamentary structures near the nucleus. "This is quite different from the smooth dust envelopes of normal comets," said principal investigator David Jewitt of the University of California at Los Angeles. "The filaments are made of dust and gravel, presumably recently thrown out of the nucleus. Some are swept back by radiation pressure from sunlight to create straight dust streaks. Embedded in the filaments are co-moving blobs of dust that likely originated from tiny unseen parent bodies." Hubble shows the main nucleus of P/2010 A2 lies outside its own halo of dust. This has never been seen before in a comet-like object. The nucleus is estimated to be 460 feet in diameter. Normal comets fall into the inner regions of the solar system from icy reservoirs in the Kuiper belt and Oort cloud. As comets near the sun and warm up, ice near the surface vaporizes and ejects material from the solid comet nucleus via jets. But P/2010 A2 may have a different origin. It orbits in the warm, inner regions of the asteroid belt where its nearest neighbors are dry rocky bodies lacking volatile materials. This leaves open the possibility that the complex debris tail is the result of an impact between two bodies, rather than ice simply melting from a parent body. "If this interpretation is correct, two small and previously unknown asteroids recently collided, creating a shower of debris that is being swept back into a tail from the collision site by the pressure of sunlight," Jewitt said. The main nucleus of P/2010 A2 would be the surviving remnant of this so-called hypervelocity collision. "The filamentary appearance of P/2010 A2 is different from anything seen in Hubble images of normal comets, consistent with the action of a different process," Jewitt said. An impact origin also would be consistent with the absence of gas in spectra recorded using ground-based telescopes. The asteroid belt contains abundant evidence of ancient collisions that have shattered precursor bodies into fragments. The orbit of P/2010 A2 is consistent with membership in the Flora asteroid family, produced by collisional shattering more than 100 million years ago. One fragment of that ancient smashup may have struck Earth 65 million years ago, triggering a mass extinction that wiped out the dinosaurs. But, until now, no such asteroid-asteroid collision has been caught "in the act." At the time of the Hubble observations, the object was approximately 180 million miles from the sun and 90 million miles from Earth. The Hubble images were recorded with the new Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3). The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between NASA and the European Space Agency. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center manages the telescope. The Space Telescope Science Institute conducts Hubble science operations. The institute is operated for NASA by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc. in Washington, D.C.

[edit on 2-2-2010 by hotrice]

Interesting S&F. Lets see how this plays out.

Maybe it's a comet that looks like a spaceship?

An "X" for 10? As in 2010? Or perhaps an "X" as in X-Files.

BTW, 11,000 mph is comparatively slow for cosmic objects. Our own manned craft orbit the Earth at over 17,000 mph.

— Doc Velocity

How is it spaceship shaped?

It would be very nice to see the track that object took and it's angular velocity. Or did the Hubble only get a still shot? Maybe it's chance, but that is the darnedest looking 'natural' object...

Its a circle-shaped object. Obviously on closer inspection it would appear less round than it does from this far out. But its safe to say that its probably an asteroid. The X shape left behind is evidently from the collision... the thing (x) isn't even solid... how is it spaceship-shaped?

Jim Oberg got the scoop:

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Maybe it was Luke Skywalker coming to visit George Lucas at the ranch.

yup a spaceship

Comets cant do something like that.

Originally posted by hotrice


www.nasa.gov...


NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has observed a mysterious X-shaped debris pattern and trailing streamers of dust that suggest a head-on collision between two asteroids.

As interesting as I find this image and explanation, there's a couple of clarification points i feel need to be made here:

1. The thread title specifically mentions a "spaceship-shaped object" and yet i find NO reference within the article to such a statement ... so I'm not sure why the OP felt the need to sensationalize.

2. The thread title again specifically mentions "... traveling at 11,000MPH", obviously implying that the "object" in the photo was actually travelling at this velocity.
Reading the article however, clearly states "... with an average impact speed of more than 11,000 miles per hour" which tells us that neither of the impacting objects were individually traveling at such a speed .... rather their COMBINED impact speeds when ADDED together gave a total of 11,000MPH.
An example would be you traveling in a car at 50MPH in one direction and another car traveling at 80MPH in the opposite direction hits you head on ... the COMBINED impact speed in this case would be 50 + 80 = 130MPH ... significantly greater than either car alone.

So the object in the photo was traveling much less than 11,000MPH


Small points to make but ones that change the "flavour" of the thread title completely.

Originally posted by Agent_USA_Supporter
yup a spaceship

Comets cant do something like that.

Evidently, yes they can.

Wow how dissapointing, I thought there would be plenty to read to entertain me untill LOST comes on how Hubble finally found planet X.

ATS what is the deal?

Where do they say it's shaped like a spaceship? I think they said what it was and how it came to look the way it does. I dont see a "ship" at all.

You might want to post your opinions in the OP like one should instead of copying and pasting the entire article.

Whatever it is it looks pretty cool. I love the Hubble Telescope, I have tons of their pics saved as desktops that alternate

Originally posted by hippomchippo
How is it spaceship shaped?

Its clearly a Klingon Bird of Prey .

"Suspected Asteroid Collision Leaves Odd X-Pattern of Trailing Debris"

link

==============================

Asteroid collisions are energetic, with an average impact speed of more than 11,000 miles per hour, or five times faster than a rifle bullet.

link


That is an incredibly violence impact .

-------------------------------

Nice to see Hubble is still operational now that its pushing on 20 years of age. I believe they expect to get at least another 4 peak years out of it before being replaced by the next-generation ~James Webb telescope .

reply to post by UmbraSumus


It's a Chig fighter inbound...

Originally posted by UmbraSumus

Originally posted by hippomchippo
How is it spaceship shaped?

Its clearly a Klingon Bird of Prey .

"Suspected Asteroid Collision Leaves Odd X-Pattern of Trailing Debris"

link

==============================

Asteroid collisions are energetic, with an average impact speed of more than 11,000 miles per hour, or five times faster than a rifle bullet.

link


That is an incredibly violence impact .

-------------------------------

Nice to see Hubble is still operational now that its pushing on 20 years of age. I believe they expect to get at least another 4 peak years out of it before being replaced by the next-generation ~James Webb telescope .

Something as aggressive looking as that makes you wonder if Dick Cheney is the Captain.

How do you know what a space ship is shaped like? Seen lots of them? You been to major manufacturers and industry captains of galactic propulsion units?


Anyways.....it is CLEARLY a Cylon Base Star. Yeesh.






[edit on 2010/2/2 by Aeons]

There's already an ongoing thread on this:

www.abovetopsecret.com...
(perhaps this thread should be closed and we should post in that one?)


...and the speculation by astronomers is that it's the dust and debris leftover from two asteroids colliding with each other:

The observations show a bizarre X-pattern of filamentary structures near the point-like nucleus of the object and trailing streamers of dust. This complex structure suggests the object is not a comet but instead the product of a head-on collision between two asteroids traveling five times faster than a rifle bullet. Astronomers have long thought that the asteroid belt is being ground down through collisions, but such a smashup has never before been seen.

[edit on 2/2/2010 by Soylent Green Is People]

A spaceship with a tail?

okaaay...

It looks mysteriously like a comet or an asteroid, go figure. Keep in mind they believe many comets (perhaps all) were just meteors covered in ice. Eventually it's just an asteroid again. Looks like a once-was comet, to me.