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
NASA caption
NASA caption
| 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 |
