Observations of near-Earth asteroid 1998 KY26 shortly after its discovery reveal a slightly elongated spheroid with a diameter of about 30 meters, a composition analogous to carbonaceous chondritic meteorites, and a rotation period of 10.7 minutes, which is an order of magnitude shorter than that measured for any other solar system object. The rotation is too rapid for 1998 KY26 to consist of multiple components bound together just by their mutual gravitational attraction.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe Hubble Space Telescope observed the fragmented comet P/Shoemaker-Levy 9 (1993e) (P indicates that it is a periodic comet) on 1 July 1993. Approximately 20 individual nuclei and their comae were observed in images taken with the Planetary Camera. After subtraction of the comae light, the 11 brightest nuclei have magnitudes between approximately 23.
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