Unusual asteroid has six comet-like tails

BBC : Most asteroids appear as tiny dots of light. When P/2013 P5 was discovered in August by astronomers using the Pan-STARRS telescope in Hawaii, however, it appeared unusually fuzzy. Dave Jewitt of UCLA said that he and his colleagues were not sure that it was even an asteroid at first. Follow-up observations, including images from Hubble, revealed that the fuzziness was caused by dust being ejected from the rock. The asteroid currently is radiating six different tails that look like the dust and gas trails of comets as they are heated by the Sun. However, the number and orientation of the dust tails of P/2013 P5 change frequently. It appears likely that the asteroid is rotating very quickly, possibly quickly enough that the stress is causing it to break apart. Further observations could support that theory if all of the dust is being ejected on the asteroid’s equatorial plane.