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

[Chaotic Cow]

Hubble has discovered a mysterious X-shaped object traveling at 11,000mph. NASA says that P/2010-A2 may be a comet, product of the collision between two asteroids. Or a Klingon Bird of Prey. Either way, UCLA investigator David Jewitt is excited:

Click above to see the full resolution image

This is quite different from the smooth dust envelopes of normal comets. 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.
OK, David, we will believe you until Jerry Bruckheimer finish his next movie, in which a "comet" suddenly stops, turns to Earth, and starts firing anti-matter rays against our underpants.

The weirdest thing, however, is not only the prettyful X-shaped debris pattern, but the fact that its 460-foot-wide nucleus is outside the dust halo and separated from the trail. This behavior is something which has never been seen before in a comet or any other solar-system-swooshing object.



The images—taken by Hubble between January 25 and January 29—lead NASA to believe that this is a product of the collision of two asteroids. The nucleus would be the "surviving remnant of a hypervelocity collision:

"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. 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.
In other words: They have no clue about what this is, and they are still speculating about how this object was formed. Maybe it's time to call Dr. Zarkov. [NASA]

[Naru523]

Wow, it does really look like a X. 

[SuperNova]

Experts say the orbit of P/2010 A2 is related to a group of asteroids known as the "Flora family", which produced the same asteroid that killed off the dinosaurs.

is it heading towards us to destroy us?!    

[Naru523]

SuperNova, that only happens every 26 million years. And, since technology are advancing fast (or it already did) we can reflect it.

[atomic7732]

Very comforting, 65 million years? Didn't that happen 65 million years ago?

Most likely, the Flora family is in the asteroid belt. Asteroids get flung in. How do you think NEO's form?

The comet could be like a galaxy merger, except a cometary fly-by. 

Edit: Aha! I was right. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flora_family

[Naru523]

Very comforting, 65 million years? Didn't that happen 65 million years ago?

Oops, I meant to say another year but I forgot XD Mass-extinction cycle.

[mustacheman]

Ah, my science teacher just showed me this yesterday! We vote that it's actually a spaceship with Martians coming to destroy us all 

[Naru523]

Mass extinctions only happen every 26 million years.

[deoxy99]

Ah, my science teacher just showed me this yesterday! We vote that it's actually a spaceship with Martians coming to destroy us all 

Yeah, right... Martians don't exist.

[Naru523]

Don't act so smart deoxy... their might be Martians underground. However, (life?) used to live on Mars. Probably some of them are still alive.

[Chaotic Cow]

Though, we obviously mean "Some form of living creature" whether it be micro-organism or something bigger.

[MassiveEffect]

That is something amazing. The shape is really cool!

[FGFG]

I think that if martians managed to survive in the underground of mars most probably they would have been able to avoid a mass extinction. And however, why did they stay still in the underground and they don't try to repopulate the planet if there is no danger since thousends and thousends of years?

The only life that could have existed on mars is bacteria and maybe the first plants. If something bigger lived there I think we could have already found it.

[atommo999]

hehe i can just imagine a starfighter flewn by bacteria 

[deoxy99]

Don't act so smart deoxy... their might be Martians underground. However, (life?) used to live on Mars. Probably some of them are still alive.

Yes, I know that. But I meant intelligent life. Intelligent life can ride spaceships easily, can't they?