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Yes, but they're also sublimating ice, so they have a coma and tail. Thus they're also classified as a comet. As the article goes on to say, they couldn't hav
by mhandley 9y ago
Yes, but they're also sublimating ice, so they have a coma and tail. Thus they're also classified as a comet.
As the article goes on to say, they couldn't have lasted all that long like this, so one theory is they used to be one asteroid that broke in two, exposing the ice that is now forming the tail.
- otp124 9y agoNot sure I understand. How much H2O/liquid/ice is inside an asteroid? Is the core made of liquid?
- krige 9y agoIn short, it simply depends on an asteroid. This one had ice, another might have not.
- sandworm101 9y agoYes. Imagine a dirty snowball. As ice on the outside burns away the thing shrinks until the outer layer is more rock and less snow. So you have a layer of dirt/rock layer above a "core" that has more ice. But he ice inside is still being heated. So ports, like little volcanoes, form in the outer layer to let steam out from the core. Thats where the jets of water/ice come from. But it all starts with the dirty snowball.