Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows the aftermath of powerful collision between two asteroids in the belt between Mars and Jupiter. They estimate the speed of the impact at "15,000 kilometers per hour -- five times the speed of a rifle bullet -- and liberated energy in excess of a nuclear bomb."
What Hubble saw indicates that P/2010 A2 is unlike any object ever seen before. At first glance, the object appears to have the tail of a comet. Close inspection, however, shows a 140-meter nucleus offset from the tail center, very unusual structure near the nucleus, and no discernable gas in the tail.
Link Photo: NASA/ESA/D. Jewitt (UCLA)
Comments (8)
"I'm beginning to agree with you. Chewie, see if you can get closer to one of the big ones!"
1. The Moon is freakin' huge, we're talking ginormous. A natural satellite of the earth should be something closer to 30 miles in diameter, Luna is over 2000 (that's bigger than Pluto).
2. The moon doesn't have a magnetic field, but it's rocks are magnetized.
3. Some moon rocks date back 4.5 billion years and there's even one that was dated 5.3 billion years old (that's a billion years older than the Earth.
4. Moon rocks have also been found to contain processed metals like brass and mica, and uranium236 and neptunium237 (those have never been found to occur naturally).
5. The Moon also appears to be freakin' hollow!