This is an oddity that is asking questions. We need to get out to these objects to inspect them and to sample them, These visible tails are more comet like than anything else and we need information to tighten up our theory.
Otherwise, it make for interesting images to speculate over.
As I have previously posted, I suspect that there is a lot of soot out there that when disturbed will charge up and naturally produce tails on comets and other objects. This may a place to find out.
Hubble Observes Aftermath of Possible Asteroid Collision
Oct. 13, 2010: Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have captured rare images of a suspected asteroid collision. The snapshots show a bizarre X-shaped object at the head of a comet-like trail of material. Their findings will be published in the Oct. 14th issue of Nature.
In January 2010, astronomers began using Hubble to track the object, named "P/2010 A2," for five months. At first they thought they had witnessed a fresh asteroid collision, but were surprised to learn the collision occurred in early 2009.
"We expected the debris field to expand dramatically, like shrapnel flying from a hand grenade," said astronomer David Jewitt of the University of California in Los Angeles
These three Hubble Space Telescope images, taken over a five-month period, show the odd-shaped debris that likely came from a collision between two asteroids. [more images]
P/2010 A2 is located in the asteroid belt, a reservoir of millions of rocky bodies between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. Astronomers estimate that modest-sized asteroids smash into each other about once a year. Catching asteroids in the act of colliding, however, is difficult because large impacts are rare while small ones, such as the one that produced P/2010 A2, are exceedingly faint. The Lincoln
The Hubble images, taken from January to May 2010 with the telescope's Wide Field Camera 3, reveal a point-like object about 400 feet wide, with a long, flowing dust tail behind a never-before-seen X pattern. The tail contains enough dust to make a ball 65 feet wide, most of it blown out of the bigger body by the impact-caused explosion. The 400-foot-wide object in the Hubble image is the remnant of a slightly larger precursor body.
A close up of the X-pattern observed by Hubble in Jan. 2010. [more]
Astronomers think a smaller rock, perhaps 10 to 15 feet wide, slammed into the larger one. The pair probably collided at high speed, about 11,000 mph, which smashed and vaporized the small asteroid and stripped material from the larger one. Jewitt estimates that the violent encounter happened in February or March 2009 and was as powerful as the detonation of a small atomic bomb.
Astronomers still do not have a good explanation for the X shape. The crisscrossed filaments at the head of the tail suggest that the colliding asteroids were not perfectly symmetrical. Material ejected from the impact, therefore, did not make a symmetrical pattern, a bit like the ragged splash made by throwing a rock into a lake. Larger particles in the X disperse very slowly and give this structure its longevity.
Astronomers plan to use Hubble again next year to view the object. Jewitt and his colleagues hope to see how far the dust has been swept back by the sun's radiation and how the mysterious X-shaped structure has evolved.
Stay tuned!
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