
Hubble discovers first known binary asteroid also classified as a comet - dnetesn
https://phys.org/news/2017-09-hubble-unique-solar.html
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alansammarone
This is amazing. It never ceases to amaze how much complex behaviour can
emerge from gravitation. After black holes, neutron stars, gravitational
waves, solar systems, this is yet another example of a structure that arises
from gravitation alone (granted, many other principles of physics are needed
for this to happen - for example conservatin of angular momentum). What else
will we discover?

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Knufen
Honestly, this is a bit click baity. It's two asteroids orbiting each other if
anyone is wondering.

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mhandley
Yes, but they're also sublimating ice, so they have a coma and tail. Thus
they're also classified as a comet.

As the article goes on to say, they couldn't have lasted all that long like
this, so one theory is they used to be one asteroid that broke in two,
exposing the ice that is now forming the tail.

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otp124
Not sure I understand. How much H2O/liquid/ice is inside an asteroid? Is the
core made of liquid?

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krige
In short, it simply depends on an asteroid. This one had ice, another might
have not.

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PickNChoose
The image isn't clear enough to proclaim such things.

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pavel_lishin
It appears to be, to the subject matter experts.

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PickNChoose
You can be wrong at any level if you start extrapolating details.

