Centaur's bright surface spot could be crater of fresh ice (artist's impression)

This is an artist's impression of object called 8405 Asbolus, a 48-mile-wide (80-kilometer) chunk of ice and dust that lies between Saturn and Uranus. Astronomers using NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope were surprised to find that one side of the object (also called a Centaur) looks like it has a fresh crater less than 10 million years old, exposing bright underlying ice Hubble didn't directly see the crater - the object is too small and far away - but a measure of its surface composition shows a complex chemistry. The event that caused the impact crater on 8405 Asbolus may also have knocked it out of the Kuiper belt, a ring of comet nuclei just beyond Pluto's orbit.

Credit:

Greg Bacon (STScI/AVL)

About the Image

NASA press release
Id:opo0031a
Type:Artwork
Release date:14 September 2000, 06:00
Size:400 x 270 px

About the Object

Name:8405 Asbolus, Centaur
Type:Solar System : Interplanetary Body : Asteroid
Category:Solar System

Image Formats

r.titleLarge JPEG
29.2 KB
r.titleScreensize JPEG
92.2 KB

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