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We’ve known for a while that asteroid 3200 Phaethon acts like a comet. It brightens and forms a tail when it's near the sun. And it’s the source of the annual Geminid meteor shower , even though comets are responsible for most meteor showers.
This asteroid has a rare tail and scientists just discovered what it is
The strange mystery of asteroid Phaethon's comet-like tail may have just been solved | Space
Astronomers observing the strange "rock comet" hybrid Phaethon as it passed the sun have found a surprise that could upend 14 years of thinking about the weird asteroid.
The asteroid Phaethon, which gives us the Geminid meteor shower every year and was discovered in 1983, has a strange brightening from what appears to be a tail of sodium atoms, and not dust as previously thought, the researchers found.
NASA's Planetary Radar Images Asteroid 2006 HV5
This collage represents a selection of NASA radar observations of near-Earth asteroid 2006 HV5 on April 25, 2023, less than one day before its close approach with our planet at a distance of about 1.5 million miles (2.4 million kilometers, or about 6.3 times the distance between the Moon and ...
The strange mystery of asteroid Phaethon's comet-like tail may have just been solved https://t.co/avDXZAGQAe https://t.co/FAP0cXiWvn SPACEdotcom (from NYC) Thu Apr 27 14:01:58 +0000 2023
Asteroid Phaethon is weird. It forms a comet-like tail near the Sun and sheds debris for a meteor shower seen each… https://t.co/XN8yWX2gnU NASASun (from Center of the solar system) Tue Apr 25 15:34:01 +0000 2023
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