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Huge Asteroid Suddenly Becomes a Dark Comet in Our Inner Solar System (Video)
Huge Asteroid 2013 UQ4 Suddenly Becomes a Dark Comet in Our inner Solar System
May 13 2014
Our solar system continues to shock and awe!
C/2013 UQ4 belongs to a special category of asteroids called damocloids (named for asteroid 5335 Damocles) that have orbits resembling the Halley-family comets with long periods, fairly steep inclinations and highly eccentric orbits (elongated shapes). Some, like Comet Halley itself, even travel backwards as they orbit the sun, an orbit astronomers describe as ‘retrograde’.
Light curve showing C/2013 UQ4 brightening to a sharp peak in early July and then quickly fading. Credit: Artyom Novichonok and Taras Prystavski
Damocloids are thought to be comets that have lost all their fizz. With their volatile ices spent from previous trips around the sun, they stop growing comas and tails and appear identical to asteroids. Occasionally, one comes back to life. It’s happened in at least four other cases and appears to be happening with C/2013 UQ4 as well.
Studies of the comet/asteroid’s light indicate that C/2013 UQ4 UQ4 is a very dark but rather large object some 4-9 miles (7-15 km) across. It’s estimated that C/2013 UQ4 takes at least 500 years to make one spin around the sun.
Read more here: http://phys.org/news/2014-05-asteroid…
Are you prepared?
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thanks for sharing DD
Heart Hugs,,,,Elias