New data on the strange space rock 3200 Phaethon [Ciencia] – 24/10/2018

Mexico.- A new investigation of the 3200 Phaethon celestial body, which in December 2017 passed an extremely close distance from the Earth, indicates that it is "a strange blue asteroid that created [la lluvia de meteoros] The precious stones and the heat so heat up that the metals melt on its surface, "said Teddy Kareta, the principal investigator of this work and a member of the University of Arizona (United States) .

This and other information on this enigmatic space object was presented at the 50th Annual Meeting of the Planetary Science Division of the American Astronomical Society, which took place on October 23 in Knoxville, Tennessee, USA. Cnet.

3200 Phaeton is a 6 km diameter, unusual color rock and one of the few asteroids to produce meteor showers. In addition, it makes walks extremely close to the sun, so that its surface reaches temperatures of 800 degrees Celsius.

Although this strange object was discovered in 1983 and has "a very eccentric orbit", it is "hard to say if Phaeton is no longer an asteroid or a dead comet," said Kareta, who also noted that his Research allowed him to perceive that this object was darker and darker a more homogeneous surface than previously thought.

These specialists hope that their new data will be useful to the Japanese Space Agency's (JAXA) Destiny Plus mission, which hopes to find a solution to this enigmatic asteroid over the next decade.

With information from RT