Posted on 09/20/2017 1:36:11 PM PDT by BenLurkin
The two asteroids, collectively known as 288P, are locked in orbit around each other and are also spewing water vapor into space like comets (which originate in the region beyond Neptune). Many asteroids between Jupiter and Mars can claim one of those characteristics (orbiting one another or releasing vapor), but this is the first time that researchers have identified an object with both features...
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The peculiar rocks were initially identified as a single object, but follow-up observations by Agarwal and her team revealed that 288P consists of two asteroids, each about 1 kilometer (0.62 miles) wide, locked in orbit. Once again, there are many main-belt asteroids in that size group, but the team also discovered that the two rocks are orbiting much, much farther apart than other asteroids of that size typically do.
The asteroids in 288P orbit each other at a distance of about 100 km (about 62 miles), or at least 10 times farther apart than models predict they should be... The rocks' orbits are also highly eccentric (meaning very elongated, rather than closer to a perfect circle), another unique characteristic for two bodies with the size and separation of 288P... "different from all other known [asteroid] binaries,"
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In 1996, researchers made the first-ever detection of water vapor spewing off an asteroid in the belt between Mars and Jupiter. Objects in this region have been dubbed "main-belt comets" or "active asteroids" (although some may be spewing dust into space rather than water). Previously, it appeared that the main asteroid belt was a cosmic desert, and water could be found only in ancient space rocks, including comets, orbiting in the Kuiper Belt beyond Neptune. Researchers now have strong evidence that Ceres, the largest body in the main asteroid belt, harbors huge amounts of frozen water.
(Excerpt) Read more at space.com ...
These mainstream NASA explanations are becoming tiresome.
Asteroids are rocks just like comets... not spewing water — just dust, protons, hydroxyl ions by electrical discharge, not solar heating.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRtsgVagQ9E&t=353s
It would have been interesting if the author had researched the literature and reported if any of the other members of the group are also spewing water.
Not really. Comets are mostly water (as observed by the Rosetta mission) and the asteroid Ceres has spectral features (as observed by the Dawn mission) typical of class "C" meteorites which are up to 30% water by mass. Many other asteroids share these spectral features.
Problem is, water is not stable on the surface of an asteroid at 3 AU. This means that any water on the surface of an asteroid or burnt out comet will have sublimated off long ago and that the water that remains is under a layer of surface dust. When a meteor hits the asteroid it can expose and vaporize the sub-surface water. Over many years, as the asteroid orbits, the sun can shine down into normally shaded parts meteor craters sublimating off more water until dust ultimately covers over the ice deposit.
I saw the Space-Rock duo open up for Insane Covfeve Posse at Winterland in 1981.
NASA Budget time ping!
Of course they have water. They are part of what’s left of the collision of Niburu and Tiamat, the water planet. Sheesh. I thought everyone knew that.
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