Apod 3.3 P/2010 A2: Unusual Asteroid Tail Implies Powerful Collision

This unusual object was discovered in January by the ground-based LINEAR laboratory. Its unusual shape led to the Hubble Telescope's observation of the object last week. The object appears to be a comet due to its tail, but its 140 meter nucleus is off center, the tail does not appear to be composed of gas, and the structure around the nucleus is different than what normally appears in a comet. Scientists believe that the object formed from the collision of two small asteroids in the asteroid belt. The collision likely occurred at over 15,000 kilometers per hour and then pressure from the sun spread out the debris to form into a comet-like tail. Study of this comet is expected to help increase our understanding of the early solar system because it is believed that similar collisions occurred during the formation of the solar system.