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A group of astronomers has recently discovered a new object in the asteroid belt. With the help of the Hubble Space Telescope, something with these characteristics has not been seen before. The asteroid belt is a region located between Mars and Jupiter, plagued with asteroids orbiting the Sun, like the other planets. Although its origin cannot be 100% known, a widely accepted theory explains that it could be a "failed case" of the planet. When the solar system was being created, it never materialized. After the impacts of other meteors, etc., it ended up being like the belt that we currently observe.
This new object, it is two asteroids rotating around each other. This makes it the first binary asteroid. Something that had not been seen before. To all this, in addition, it has been classified as a comet! It includes a bright comma and a long tail. The research, presented in the journal Nature, with the comet baptized as 288P, thus becomes the first binary asteroid classified as a comet.
The investigations
The first observation dates back to September 2016, just before 288P was at its closest to the Sun. That allowed a detailed first look at the object using Hubble. In the observation it could be seen that they are two asteroids of a similar size. They orbit each other at a distance of 100km.
Something that could also be observed on the asteroid is the existence of ice. Team leader Jessica Agarwal of the Max Planck Institute said: “We detected strong indications of sublimation of water ice due to increased solar heating. Similar to how the comet's tail is created.
Understanding the origin and evolution of comets that orbit the asteroid belt is key. Much of the understanding and formation of the Solar System can be born there. The binary comet 288P, is presented from now on, as a key piece, to understand the beginnings of how the Solar System arose.