Hubble Witnesses Mysterious Breakup of Asteroid

astroengine writes "Hubble has observed some weird things since it was launched in 1990, but this is probably one of the strangest. In September 2013, the Catalina and Pan-STARRS sky surveys spotted a mysterious object in the asteroid belt, a region of rocky debris that occupy the space between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. Follow-up observations by the Keck Observatory in Hawaii resolved three separate objects within the fuzzy cloud. It was so strange that Hubble mission managers decided to use the space telescope to get a closer look. And what they saw has baffled and thrilled astronomers in equal measure. 'This is a really bizarre thing to observe — we've never seen anything like it before,' said co-author Jessica Agarwal of the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Germany. 'The break-up could have many different causes, but the Hubble observations are detailed enough that we can actually pinpoint the process responsible.'"

ITS HAPPENING

[Moheeheeko]

I, for one, welcome our new asteroid pulverizing overlords.

Re:

[techno-vampire]

In Soviet Russia, asteroids pulverize you!

Re:

[Cryacin]

So an Anaconda crashed into an asteroid and blew it up. He had insurance.

The Port Authority

[Latent Heat]

"I think its time for some 'traffic problems' in the Asteroid Belt."

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[Dishwasha]

So.....you're welcoming...solar wind? The sun? I don't know how long you've been here, but the sun and its wind have been around for quite some time. Or did you just not RTFA?

Aliens

[nurb432]

Simple industrial ( mining ) accident. I wonder of they have their own version of OSHA.

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[gadget junkie]

Simple industrial ( mining ) accident. I wonder of they have their own version of OSHA.

Nah, the actual event would be obscured by an insane amount of paperwork.

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[Bigbutt]

That's what the cloud is. Paper.

[John]

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[ackthpt]

Nope, no OSHA, no patents, no trademarks. They're also so advanced that we look like dirt. When they finally do come here to do trade with us they'll laugh at our backward ways, all the time our Legions o' Lawyers try to find some means of making them do business our way, despite them having everything we want and us having nothing they want (aside from puree of Bieber.)

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[AK Marc]

Likely, we'll be mined. Why get so many little asteroids, when they could mine a larger planet? Whether it's water, gold, nitrogen, or whatever.

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[beanpoppa]

Because it's a lot easier to escape the gravity well of an asteroid.

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[AK Marc]

The future, according to sci fi is either material poor or energy poor, and not both. So if they want our minerals, they don't have any issue with leaving our gravity well.

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[rolfwind]

Too bad scifi is wrong on both counts. We have a lot of both. Just maybe not on earth itself.

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[mikael]

The asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter has more material than any of the inner planets. It's a fascinating debate as to they ever were part of a single planet, or never coalesced into a single object due to the gravitational perturbation of Jupiter (any large planetlets would have been thrown out of orbit).

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[AK Marc]

I though the total sum of the asteroid belt mass is less than the earth.

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[Guest316]

Simple industrial ( mining ) accident. I wonder of they have their own version of OSHA.

And by OSHA, you mean MSHA [msha.gov].

Wasn't mysterious

[geekoid]

There friends have seen it coming for weeks.

heh

My guess?

[oodaloop]

The Millennium Falcon crashed. The odds of successfully navigating an asteroid belt are...well, they're not good, let's just leave it at that.

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[BenJeremy]

More likely Jango Fett detonated a concussion missile to try and kill the Jedi on his trail.

Re:My guess?

[oodaloop]

That doesn't make any sense, since it would have to have taken in place in some sort of prequel, which was never made.

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[Minwee]

Don't make me do this to everyone [tvtropes.org].

someone call Tsoukalos

[SuperBanana]

We all know the truth. [knowyourmeme.com]

Three words

[IWantMoreSpamPlease]

Alien asteroid mining.

'nuff said.

Three more words

[geekoid]

Your post was five words.

King Ghidora

[Arkiel]

"The images clearly showed a golden three-headed space dragon emerge from the cloud of debris. The eerie, high-pitched laughter of an alien demon filled the NASA command center before a bolt of gold space-lightning took out the Hubble telescope."

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[cbhacking]

Aww... when you said "three-headed dragon" I was hoping you were talking about Dahak.

(Link to legal free copies of the books, because they're awesome like that: http://baencd.thefifthimperium... [baencd.the...perium.com] No personal association)

Some asteroids ...

[PPH]

... have the structural integrity of a dust bunny.

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[drinkypoo]

Shouldn't a loosely-associated cluster of crap have a different name from a solid object? Or should that just wait until we can reliably tell the difference remotely

/. is dead

[Nimey]

Someone really felt the need to explain what the asteroid belt is.

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[wvmarle]

You forgot to mention the part where they completely left out the YORP effect, which is blamed for the desintegration of the object...

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[theotherbastard]

You forgot to mention the part where they completely left out the YORP effect, which is blamed for the desintegration of the object...

"I sound my barbaric YORP over the roofs of the world."

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[Nimey]

I put on my YORP and wizard hat.

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[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

They are (almost) here....

[flyonthewall]

Another obstacle removed on Vogon's galactic highway clearing.

Not much time left here...

Ah,

[no-body]

one can see those effects on freeways.
Round truck tire carcasses on the roadside.

Mysterious reason:

Rotational forces overcome structural integrity and thing goes bust.

Maybe use Hubble to zoom in on one of those smoking tires and document the event?

Absolutely nothing happened today in Sector 83 ...

[DeadDecoy]

I repeat absolutely nothing happened today in Sector 83 by 9 by 12. Please go about your day.

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[Minwee]

No boom today. Boom tomorrow. There's always a Boom tomorrow.

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[davewoods]

Or if it was in motion, breaking up via centripetal forces would cause it to spread in all directions, but mostly in the direction it was traveling. (Given enough speed)

Better Picture

[linebackn]

That site is really script heavy, here is a direct link to a clearer picture: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wi... [wikimedia.org]

Global Warming

[ScentCone]

I drove my SUV to the same Home Depot three times this week while fixing a plumbing problem. QED

Thanks, Captain "Unnecessary Explanation"

[Buck Feta]

the asteroid belt, a region of rocky debris that occupy the space between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter

Oh, that's what the asteroid belt is.

...and enhance!

[Dutchmaan]

> - - - - - `( ).

Player 1 SCORE: 150

Relevant SMBC

[danhaas]

How nasa should handle announcementsÃ

http://www.smbc-comics.com/?id... [smbc-comics.com]

SMBC is becoming almost as relevant as xkcd...

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[davewoods]

As it should. SMBC is just as funny as XKCD, and he posts more often!

Maybe they just weren't right for each other

[OglinTatas]

Mysterious breakup indeed

Headline

[RivenAleem]

"We should see other celestial bodies"