A 1.6-Mile Asteroid Is Spotted Spinning So Fast It Challenges What We Know
Astronomers using fresh data from the Vera C. Rubin Observatory have uncovered an asteroid that defies usual planetary physics, spinning at a speed so fast it should technically be tearing itself apart, but isn't.
Now, most large asteroids are not solid, single boulders. Instead, they are typically loose rubble piles, i.e. gravitationally bound collections of rock, dust, and who-knows-what. Because of this fragile makeup, objects larger than 150 meters across would face a strict physical limitation known as the spin barrier. That means if a rubble-pile asteroid rotates faster than once every 2.2 hours, centrifugal forces overcome its weak gravity, hurling its contents outward and breaking the body apart eventually.
However, a newly analyzed asteroid (ID 491384) is shattering (pun intended) those assumptions by becoming the largest ultra-fast-spinning asteroid ever detected by science. Stretching 2.53 kilometers (1.57 miles) across, this rock completes a full rotation in a mere 4.18...
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