P/2010 A2

Comet P/2010 A2 (LINEAR ) is a small body in the solar system, showing the typical characteristics of comets and asteroids. He was therefore at the beginning of the name of a comet given.

The object runs in the main belt asteroids and has at the same time a comet's tail. An analysis of images from the Hubble telescope show a dust and gravel tail is caused by a collision with another asteroid. The position of the comet is remarkable because it is out of the coma. Such a thing has never been observed in comets. At the Max Planck Institute, the perspective of the Rosetta probe was used to date to the collision of the asteroid. After extensive simulations, the researchers are of the opinion that the collision, accurate to 10 days took place on 10 February 2009.

P/2010 A2 was discovered on 6 January 2010 from the Lincoln Near- Earth Asteroid Research (LINEAR ) with a one-meter telescope on a CCD recording. He was observed at 112 days of its 3.5 -year round around the sun. He had reached the beginning of December 2009 perihelion.

With an aphelion of only 2.6 AE remains P/2010 A2 for the entire round trip time within the frost line (see frost line engl. ) Of the solar system of 2.7 AE. Beyond the frost line are volatile ice fragments frequently encountered. However, although no water or other gases have been discovered, be ruled out that the tail of the comet has not yet caused by gases. Model calculations indicate that the asteroid its activity end of March 2009 began in June 2009, reached its maximum and stopped the activity again in December 2009.

P/2010 A2 probably has a diameter of 150 meters. Already in the discovery it was assumed that a diameter of less than 500 meters.

Another object of Centaurs ( 60558 ) Echeclus is a similar object.

The orbit of P/2010 A2 asteroid matches the group of the Flora family, which originated 100 million years ago.