288P Asteroid 101
288P is the first known binary asteroid that is also classified as a main-belt comet.These two asteroids, roughly the same size, orbit each other about 62 miles apart.Most interesting fact is, these two generates an ice tail which makes it a comet.
Artistic representation of the binary asteroids |
This was discovered on 15 November 2006, by the Spacewatch survey at Kitt Peak National Observatory near Tucson, Arizona.The possible cometary activity was seen in November 2011 by Pan-STARRS. Both Spacewatch and Pan-STARRS are asteroid survey projects of NASA's Near Earth Object Observations Program.
A time-lapse video of 288P |
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