Bizarre X-shaped intruder linked to an unseen asteroid collision
Wednesday, October 13, 2010 - 13:31
in Astronomy & Space
Astronomers have observed what happens after asteroids crash together. Using Hubble to study the aftermath of one such collision over four months, they watched a strange, comet-like debris trail slowly evolve as the collision site orbited the Sun. This research gives clues about how asteroids behave when they collide, and how the fall-out from these impacts contributes to the dust that pervades the solar system.