LOS ANGELES (AP) - A strange object that moves like a comet but looks
like an asteroid was spotted in space by an Air Force telescope using a
special camera. The object, with a diameter of 5 to10 miles, may be an
unusual asteroid or a dead comet stripped of all volatile material, NASA
officials said Wednesday."This is a misfit in the grand scheme of
things", Eleanor Helin, principal investigator of the Near-Earth
Asteroid Tracking program at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said in a
statement. Scientists said nothing like it has been seen before.
The object, dubbed 1996 PW, was spotted in data taken from an Aug. 9th
observation atop Mount Haleakala on Maui, Hawaii. A special camera
attached to the telescope automatically surveys the skies for objects -
asteroids and comets - which could pose a hazard to Earth. Asteroids
are rocky bodies that mainly orbit in the 'asteroid belt' between
Jupiter and Mars. Comets generally have orbits that go beyond the
planets and have volatile material streaming off.
No comet-like gas emissions were observed from 1996 PW, even during its
closest approach to the sun, supporting the argument that the object is
an asteroid. However, its orbit is estimated to have a period of 5,000
years, an elongated, comet-like circuit that stretches into the void
beyond the orbits of Neptune and Pluto. The orbits of the majority of
asteroids are on the order of three to five years, and in an extreme
case, 50 years, said Steve Pravdo, project task manager for the asteroid
tracking program. The comet-like motion was spotted by scientist Gareth
Williams while processing the data with a computer at the Smithsonian
Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge, Mass. Scientists using a 5-meter
telescope at Palomar Mountain in San Diego County plan on making
observations to determine the object's physical measurements and
composition.
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory's special camera, installed on Maui in
December 1995, uses time exposures to spot the movement of objects near
Earth among the thousands of celestial bodies in every image.
But there's no reason to worry about 1996 PW hitting Earth, Pravdo said.
It's in a 'dumb orbit' he said. "It's on its way out."
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