This is a Hubble Space Telescope picture of asteroid (596) Scheila, as observed on Dec. 27, 2010. The visible-light image was taken with Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3 when the asteroid was approximately 217 million miles away. The asteroid is surrounded by a C-shaped cloud, or coma, of dust particles. A linear tail of dust can also be seen streaming behind the asteroid. The asteroid body, which is approximately 70 miles across, appears star-like because it is overexposed so that the faint dust can be imaged.
A second Hubble observation on Jan. 4, 2011, showed that the dusty coma had faded by 30 percent. These data are consistent with the idea that Hubble is observing the aftermath of a collision between Scheila and a much smaller body that blasted debris from the surface. This would be the second time a collision between two asteroids has been witnessed.
Credits
NASA, ESA, D. Jewitt (UCLA), and M. Mutchler (STScI)| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | Asteroid (596) Scheila |
| Object Description | Main-Belt Comet/Asteroid |
| Distance | Scheila’s orbit lies in the outer asteroid belt at a semi-major axis of 2.926 AU from the Sun. During the time of the Hubble observations, the asteroid was ~3.1 AU from the Sun, and ~2.3 AU from Earth. |
| Dimensions | The image is 2.2 arcminutes (133,000 mi or 214,000 km) wide. |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description | The image was created from Hubble data from proposal HST proposal : D. Jewitt (University of California, Los Angeles), H. Weaver (JHU/APL), M. Mutchler (STScI), S. Larson (University of Arizona), and J. Agarwal (ESA/ESTEC, University of Potsdam). |
| Instrument | HST>WFC3/UVIS |
| Exposure Dates | December 27, 2010, Exposure Time: 26 minutes |
| Filters | F606W (V) |
| About The Image | |
| Color Info | This image was originally black and white and recorded only overall brightness. These brightness values were translated into a range of bluish hues. Such color "maps" can be useful in helping to distinguish subtly varying brightness in an image. |
| Compass Image |  |
| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | A name or catalog number that astronomers use to identify an astronomical object. |
| Object Description | The type of astronomical object. |
| R.A. Position | Right ascension – analogous to longitude – is one component of an object's position. |
| Dec. Position | Declination – analogous to latitude – is one component of an object's position. |
| Constellation | One of 88 recognized regions of the celestial sphere in which the object appears. |
| Distance | The physical distance from Earth to the astronomical object. Distances within our solar system are usually measured in Astronomical Units (AU). Distances between stars are usually measured in light-years. Interstellar distances can also be measured in parsecs. |
| Dimensions | The physical size of the object or the apparent angle it subtends on the sky. |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description |
|
| Instrument | The science instrument used to produce the data. |
| Exposure Dates | The date(s) that the telescope made its observations and the total exposure time. |
| Filters | The camera filters that were used in the science observations. |
| About The Image | |
| Image Credit | The primary individuals and institutions responsible for the content. |
| Publication Date | The date and time the release content became public. |
| Color Info | A brief description of the methods used to convert telescope data into the color image being presented. |
| Orientation | The rotation of the image on the sky with respect to the north pole of the celestial sphere. |
