When you imagine an asteroid cruising through the solar system you probably think of it as a static object, not doing much beyond speeding along in a straight line and eventually running into something. The reality can be much different and, as a new image from the Hubble Space Telescope shows, asteroids sometimes have self-destructive habits. The snapshot shows the asteroid known as 6478 Gault, which is caught in a permanent spin cycle. In fact, the space rock is rotating so rapidly that it's a...
When you imagine an asteroid cruising through the solar system you probably think of it as a static object, not doing much beyond speeding along in a straight line and eventually running into something. The reality can be much different and, as a new image from the Hubble Space Telescope shows, asteroids sometimes have self-destructive habits. The snapshot shows the asteroid known as 6478 Gault, which is caught in a permanent spin cycle. In fact, the space rock is rotating so rapidly that it's a...
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