Hubble 'scope snaps 200,000-ton chunky crumble conundrum

The Hubble space telescope has filmed strange asteroid P/2013 R3 disintegrating chunk by chunk as it screams around our Sun. As announced at the orbiting probe's website here, this particular crumbling space rock is something that's never been seen before. It all started when two surveys, Catalina and Pan-STARRS, spotted an …

[Charles Manning]

It was a swarm of them

They were flying in a stealth formation.... Us meatsasks thought there was just one out there until they went into attack formation.

[Mark 85]

Re: It was a swarm of them

Damn... you beat me to it. It does look like a group in tight formation suddenly changing the formation.

[Shades]

Re: It was a swarm of them

Yep, first thing I thought too.

[TRT]

Re: It was a swarm of them

*hides beneath crudely shaped concrete hut*

[willi0000000]

error 2035 strikes again

why not just post a link to the video?

[Wzrd1]

"It is called ice and it gets a little slick."

Need one say any more?

OK, I shall.

Near absolute zero center components meet modest heat, then finally get to describe what volatile means.

[Trevor_Pott]

Dude...are you smoking timecubes?

[Anonymous Coward]

Someone check Bruce Willis' alibi!!

The guy gets away with it once, and now he thinks he has the right to push around every space-rock that comes along...

[et tu, brute?]

"asteroid P/2013 R3"?

It wasn't an asteroid, it was the mother ship our scientists used when they came to check on the progress of the hairless apes, and it was abandoned because our home-world sent a newer, better version to pick us up, so we simply abandoned it... Now, after eons of neglect, it is finally breaking up!

[Mike Bell]

Giant worm responsible

Exogorth

[Anonymous Coward]

INFRARED IMAGE USING HD SHOW A PACKAGE BEING DELIVERED

Using Infrared filters and High Definition Boost 6 pieces of the original Asteroid have defined equal size and have 90 degree angles all the same Box shape. It is as if a package was delivered to our Solar System with a designed purpose and a protective covering. The photo is 251 X 400 pixels 43 KB using a 400% zoom Infrared filters with High Definition imaging boosting the DPI to 3000. The 6 pieces are flying a set path of equal distance to one another at this time. This is not a natural artifact but likely a object sent to probe our Solar System as we will soon do with likely Machine Intelligence or Remotely controlled like our Drones.

[Graham Marsden]

Re: INFRARED IMAGE USING HD SHOW A PACKAGE BEING DELIVERED

Being delivered by Universe Parcel Services...?

Should we expect a "Sorry you were out when we tried to deliver your item" message soon?

[Stoneshop]

Re: INFRARED IMAGE USING HD SHOW A PACKAGE BEING DELIVERED

AManFromMars1 forgot to log in

[M7S]

Harriet Jones got bored

No Sycorax recently for Torchwood to take potshots at

[Vladimir Plouzhnikov]

That's how

An interstellar canister shot looks like. This one's missed - naa-na, na-na-naa-na!

[Anonymous Coward]

origin

If you look real close, you can see the "Made in China" label on the side....

[Chris G]

Quick!

Break out the Slim Whitman albums!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=684UFG52JNY

[Mint Sauce]

ROU

Probably just a Torturer class ROU reconfiguring its fields to appear as something else.

[jubtastic1]

I am no expert

heh, but t sure looks from the video like a rock hitting an atmosphere and breaking up, maybe it passed through a small* cloud* of something.

*relative terms.

[Vladimir Plouzhnikov]

Re: I am no expert

Yes! A dark matter cloud!

[Christoph]

“This is a rock"

Well no, actually, it probably isn't. It's more likely to be a loose pile of rubble with only self-gravitation holding it together.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: “This is a rock"

Is the density known or estimated?

If the rock were like pumice, whether a pile of rubble or a single lump, then the trapped gas would expand as it heats up nearing the sun, burst out and create the tail we see. A big pocket of gas could easily fracture the whole thing.

[cortland]

Deliquensively

Braking for rendezvous.

[Will Godfrey]

Guess I won't be seeing this then

Could not load plugins:

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[Asylum Sam]

Re: Guess I won't be seeing this then

maybe you're the intended target..

[4ecks]

Re: Guess I won't be seeing this then

If you're running Firefox + NoScript, just allow jwpcdn.com and reload the page - works fine for me now.

I do wish The Reg would also put up a link to the video embeds in their stories, as not all browsers (esp. mobile) have the required plug-ins.