NASA/ESA/University of Hawaii/European Southern Observatory A 2.5-mile-wide asteroid called 6478 Gault was discovered in 1988. The space rock recently grew two long, bright tails like a comet, which astronomers struggled to explain. The Hubble telescope studied the tails in detail, while ground-based observatories helped confirm the asteroid was rapidly spinning. Researchers figured that sunlight gradually […]
The Hubble telescope caught an asteroid ripping itself to pieces due to the ‘YORP effect’
NASA/ESA/University of Hawaii/European Southern Observatory A 2.5-mile-wide asteroid called 6478 Gault was discovered in 1988. The space rock recently grew two long, bright tails like a comet, which astronomers struggled to explain. Hubble telescope observations helped confirm that the asteroid is spinning quickly. A sunlight-based effect called "YORP" may have spun up Gault to a […]