This set of Hubble Space Telescope photos reveals two asteroids orbiting each other that have comet-like features. These include a bright halo of material, called a coma, and a long tail of dust. The asteroid pair, called 2006 VW139/288P, was observed in September 2016 just before the asteroid made its closest approach to the Sun. The photos revealed ongoing activity in the binary system. The apparent movement of the tail is a projection effect due to the relative alignment between the Sun, Earth, and 2006 VW139/288P changing between observations. The tail orientation is also affected by a change in the particle size. Initially, the tail was pointing towards the direction where comparatively large (about 1 millimeter in size) dust particles were emitted in late July. However, from Sept. 20 on, the tail began to point in the opposite direction from the Sun, where small (about 10 microns in size) particles are blown away from the nucleus by radiation pressure.
Credits
NASA, ESA, and J. Agarwal (Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research)| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | 288P |
| Object Description | A binary asteroid system |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description | Data were provided by the HST proposals , , , . |
| Instrument | WFC3/UVIS |
| Exposure Dates | August 22 - September 29, 2016 |
| Filters | F606W |
| About The Image | |
| Color Info | These images represent several exposures acquired by the WFC3/UVIS instrument on the Hubble Space Telescope. Color has been applied to the grayscale (black&white) images; the brightness maps to different color values. |
| 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. |
