Serendipitously Discovered Asteroids
Depicts: Asteroid in the constellaion Centaurus
Copyright: R. Evans and K. Stapelfeldt (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) and NASA
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Hubble captured a bright asteroid, with a visual magnitude of
18.7, roaming in the constellation Centaurus. Background stars are shown
in white, while the asteroid trail is depicted in blue at top center. The
trail has a length of 19 arc seconds. This asteroid has a diameter of one
and one-quarter miles (2 kilometers), and was located 87 million miles
from Earth and 156 million miles from the sun. Numerous orange and blue
specks in this image and the following two images were created by
cosmic rays, energetic subatomic particles that struck the camera's
detector.
Last Update: 1 September 2019