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NASA Solar Probe Snaps Elusive Asteroid Trails For The First Time

posted by chromas on Friday December 13 2019, @04:59PM   Printer-friendly

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

The Parker Solar Probe, one of NASA's most extreme spacecraft, has been gathering data on our sun for the past year, revealing some unusual phenomena in the outer atmosphere. But solar science isn't the only feather in PSP's extremely hot hat. Astronomers at the US Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) have used the probe's specialized camera to detect the faint signal of an asteroid dust trail that has avoided detection for decades. 

Parker is equipped with the Wide-Field Imager for Solar Probe (WISPR), a suite of cameras built specifically for taking photos around the sun. Usually, light from the trail is obscured by the brightness of the sun, but the WISPR cameras are specially designed to filter out all that light, giving astronomers a chance to see the faint dust cloud trailing asteroid 3200 Phaethon.

Phaethon is a well-characterized and slightly bizarre asteroid, about 3.6 miles in width, that more closely resembles a comet. It travels closer to the sun than any other named asteroid but its trail is particularly visible near the star, because it's more densely packed. It also has a dark past.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 13 2019, @05:17PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 13 2019, @05:17PM (#931761)

    > It also has a dark past.

    Gee, way to leave an AC hanging...

    The first Google I found:

    PHAETHON was a youthful son of Helios who begged his father let him drive the chariot of the sun. The god reluctantly conceded to the boy's wishes and handed him the reigns. But his inexperience proved fatal, for Phaethon quickly lost control of the immortal steeds and the sun-chariot veered out of control setting the earth ablaze. The plains of Africa were scorched to desert and men charred black. Zeus, appalled by the destruction, smote the boy with a thunderbolt, hurling his flaming body into the waters of the River Eridanos. Phaethon's sisters, the Heliades, gathered on the banks and in their mourning were transformed into amber-teared poplar trees.

    Maybe Ari knew the family??