The Mystery Of The Self-Destructing Asteroid

Way off topic but you know that here at Liberaland we love weird science:

How does that happen?

A first observed instance of an asteroid breaking apart now has astronomers baffled, Reuters reported. The new images, captured throughout a period of several months by NASA’s Hubble Telescope, show an asteroid disintegrating and breaking into at least 10 pieces.

What’s puzzling scientists is what led the asteroid to disintegrate. Unlike most space rocks that break apart after a head-on collision, asteroid P/2013 R3 appears to have crumbled without an impetus.

So why did the asteroid suddenly break apart?

A team of researchers explained in a paper in the Astrophysical Journal Letters, published online March 6, that sunlight may be a factor in the asteroid’s disintegration. The researchers describe a “subtle effect” in which sun rays could have caused the asteroid to rotate slightly faster. As the space rock’s rate of rotation gradually increased, centrifugal force caused pieces of the asteroid to pull apart. Over time, an asteroid under this type of force would appear to disintegrate from the inside out.

By: dave-dr-gonzo

David Hirsch, a.k.a. Dave "Doctor" Gonzo*, is a renegade record producer, video producer, writer, reformed corporate shill, and still-registered lobbyist for non-one-percenter performing artists and musicians. He lives in a heavily fortified compound in one of Manhattan's less trendy neighborhoods.

* Hirsch is the third person to use the pseudonym, a not-so-veiled tribute to journalist and author Hunter S. Thompson, with the permission of his predecessors Gene Gaudette of American Politics Journal (currently webmaster and chief bottlewasher at Liberaland) and Stephen Meese at Smashmouth Politics.