The Hubble Space Telescope may have just spotted the first collision between two asteroids ever detected by humans. Last week, scientists detected a mysterious X-shaped object in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.
No one really knows what this thing is yet, as it’s been displaying atypical behavior (Gizmodo won’t rule out the possibility that it’s a Klingon Bird of Prey), but the current theory is that two asteroids crashed into each other at more than 11,000 miles per hour: “Scientists think this nucleus is the surviving remnant of the collision, and the tail is the rubble left over from the crash.”
Also, dinosaurs may be involved, somehow:
Scientists believe a giant comet or asteroid that hit Earth about 65 million years ago was linked to the extinction of the dinosaurs, possibly by throwing up dust or chemical clouds that blocked the sun or by igniting global wildfires.
Calculations show the orbit of P/2010 A2 is related to the group of asteroids, known at the Flora family, that produced that asteroid.
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(h/t Gizmodo)
