Vera Rubin Just Found the Fastest Spinning Asteroid We've Ever Seen
Late Science
1,714 views
#Space #Asteroids #VeraRubinObservatory
A mountain of rock is spinning in the dark between Mars and Jupiter.
It turns a full circle every 113 seconds.
Lay the Empire State Building on its side. This rock is wider.
For decades, scientists believed a rock this big would shatter at that speed. Most asteroids are loose piles of gravel, held together by weak gravity. Spin them too fast, and they fly apart.
But this rock holds together.
A brand new telescope in Chile spotted it in just 10 hours of test images. Scientists confirmed the record in a study published in January 2026. Now they want to know what it is made of, and where it came from. And what it means for every rock that might 1 day head toward Earth.
Today, we visit an asteroid breaking apart in slow motion. We watch a space rock explode over a European city. We follow a spacecraft that crashed into an asteroid on purpose.
🎧 Watch or listen to our videos earlier, and without ads, on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/033MUzt...
Sources:
The record-breaking asteroid 2025 MN45: https://rubinobservatory.org/news/rub...
The fastest spinning asteroid ever measured, 2024 BX1: https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202...
Bennu's "ball pit" surface: https://lpl.arizona.edu/news/spotligh...
Bennu throwing particles into space: https://www.nasa.gov/missions/nasas-o...
Ryugu's spinning top shape: https://cosmos.isas.jaxa.jp/hayabusa2...
Hubble watches an asteroid fall apart: https://esahubble.org/news/heic1405/
Asteroid Gault shedding dust tails: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10...
The asteroid impact test changing Didymos and Dimorphos: https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-d...
Hayabusa2's tiny, fast spinning final target: https://eos.org/articles/hayabusa2s-f...
The 10 year survey begins: https://www.washington.edu/news/2026/...
Rubin's real-time alert system: https://rubinobservatory.org/news/fir...
#Asteroid #Astronomy #Science #Space #Cosmos #Documentary #Telescope #Sleep
1 Comments
Vera Rubin Just Found the Fastest Spinning Asteroid We've Ever Seen
Late Science
1,714 views
#Space #Asteroids #VeraRubinObservatory
A mountain of rock is spinning in the dark between Mars and Jupiter.
It turns a full circle every 113 seconds.
Lay the Empire State Building on its side. This rock is wider.
For decades, scientists believed a rock this big would shatter at that speed. Most asteroids are loose piles of gravel, held together by weak gravity. Spin them too fast, and they fly apart.
But this rock holds together.
A brand new telescope in Chile spotted it in just 10 hours of test images. Scientists confirmed the record in a study published in January 2026. Now they want to know what it is made of, and where it came from. And what it means for every rock that might 1 day head toward Earth.
Today, we visit an asteroid breaking apart in slow motion. We watch a space rock explode over a European city. We follow a spacecraft that crashed into an asteroid on purpose.
🎧 Watch or listen to our videos earlier, and without ads, on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/033MUzt...
Sources:
The record-breaking asteroid 2025 MN45: https://rubinobservatory.org/news/rub...
The fastest spinning asteroid ever measured, 2024 BX1: https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202...
Bennu's "ball pit" surface: https://lpl.arizona.edu/news/spotligh...
Bennu throwing particles into space: https://www.nasa.gov/missions/nasas-o...
Ryugu's spinning top shape: https://cosmos.isas.jaxa.jp/hayabusa2...
Hubble watches an asteroid fall apart: https://esahubble.org/news/heic1405/
Asteroid Gault shedding dust tails: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10...
The asteroid impact test changing Didymos and Dimorphos: https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-d...
Hayabusa2's tiny, fast spinning final target: https://eos.org/articles/hayabusa2s-f...
The 10 year survey begins: https://www.washington.edu/news/2026/...
Rubin's real-time alert system: https://rubinobservatory.org/news/fir...
#Asteroid #Astronomy #Science #Space #Cosmos #Documentary #Telescope #Sleep