Comet or Asteroid? Hubble Discovers that a Unique Object is a Binary

HubbleSite NewsCenter -- Latest News Releases: An Asteroid That Split in Two 5,000 Years Ago Is Spouting a Comet Tail Astronomers categorize the minor bodies in the solar system according to their location and physical composition. Comets are a loose collection of ice and dust that fall in toward the Sun from beyond the orbits of the major planets, and grow long tails of dust and gas along the way. Asteroids are rocky or metallic and are relegated to a zone between Mars and Jupiter. But nature i...