Hubble spots possible asteroid collision

WASHINGTON, Feb. 2 (UPI) -- NASA says its Hubble Space Telescope has observed a mysterious X-shaped debris pattern and trailing streamers of dust suggesting a collision of two asteroids.

Although astronomers have long thought the asteroid belt is being reduced through collisions, such a smashup has never been seen before.

Asteroid collisions are energetic, NASA astronomers said, with an average impact speed of more than 11,000 miles per hour -- five times faster than a rifle bullet. The comet-like object imaged by Hubble, called P/2010 A2, was first discovered by the Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research sky survey Jan. 6. Space agency officials said new Hubble images taken Jan. 25 and 29 show a complex X-pattern of filamentary structures near the nucleus, which is estimated to be 460 feet in diameter.

"This is quite different from the smooth dust envelopes of normal comets," said principal investigator David Jewitt of the University of California-Los Angeles. "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."

At the time of the Hubble observations, the object was approximately 180 million miles from the sun and 90 million miles from Earth, NASA said.