NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has recorded never-before-seen footage of an asteroid breaking apart into 10 pieces.
While damaged comets have fallen apart as they get closer to the sun, disintegration such as this has never been seen before in the asteroid belt, according to Clarksville Online.
David Jewitt, professor at the University of California at Los Angeles and leader of the astronomical forensics investigation, stated his excitement from observing the asteroid break apart, Clarksville Online reported.
"This is a rock, and seeing it fall apart before our eyes is pretty amazing," Jewitt said.
The asteroid was first discovered by astronomers on Sept. 15, 2013, according to CBS News. When they first spotted it, the astronomers described the asteroid as unusual and fuzzy-looking. Two weeks later, they decided to observe the asteroid further when it appeared to be three bodies in a stream of dust almost the diameter of Earth.
"The Keck Observatory showed us this thing was worth looking at with Hubble," Jewitt said. "With its superior resolution, space telescope observations soon showed there were really 10 embedded objects, each with comet-like dust tails. The four largest rocky fragments are up to 400 yards in diameter, about four times the length of a football field."
Data from Hubble showed that the fragments drifted away from each other at about one mph. While the asteroid started breaking apart last year, the most recent images show that there are new pieces being discovered, Clarksville Online reported.
The disintegration is unlikely to have been caused by a collision with another asteroid, which would have been more violent than what has occurred, with debris traveling much faster, Clarksville Online reported. After finding an active asteroid with six tails, which has been named P/2013 P5, astronomers are finding evidence that the disintegration may have been caused by the pressure of sunlight.
The astronomers said the asteroid's debris weighs about 200,000 tons, CBS News reported. They added that the debris will most likely travel into the sun, but a small amount of it will shoot across the sky in a meteor shower.
