Claire Zimmerman: Asteroid Found With Six Tails

In September, NASA's Hubble Telescope took some pictures of an asteroid that had not one, not two, but SIX tails trailing behind it. Astronomers are currently unaware of what caused this asteroid to have six tails. However, they are fairly certain that it was not due to collision, because there was not a large amount of dust exerted into space at once: it was a gradual thing. They are still trying to find out what the cause of this was. They guess that it's because bits of dust fell off at different times, and the radiation pressures from the sun affected these different streams, so they were separate rather than one massive tail.

This is so profoundly amazing to me! Whenever you think of an asteroid, you think just one tail behind it. The idea that it's possible for it to have six kind of dumbfounds me. It makes sense now that I read this article, but if I hadn't of read it, I would have not thought it was possible. It's just remarkable how much we can learn about the universe with the technology we have. Just think of all the amazing discoveries that have come out of the Hubble's journey, and this is just another one added on top of it. It's all just so awe inspiring and beautiful.

http://www.nasa.gov/press/2013/november/nasas-hubble-sees-asteroid-spouting-six-comet-like-tails/#.Un2oJ5TwJNs

Also, just because I love the Hubble Space Telescope, here are some other pictures.