Small Asteroid Accelerates In Space For No Apparent Reason, Leaves Scientists Stunned

A small, fast-spinning asteroid known as 1998 KY26 has left scientists stunned, as it has made some unexpected accelerations. The researchers now question whether it might be a "dark comet" or an object of technological origin. Measuring only about 11 meters (36 feet) across, this space rock is picking up speed in a way that defies standard physics and leaves researchers running out of logical explanations.

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Discovered decades ago, 1998 KY26 spins wildly, completing a full rotation every 5.35 minutes. Recently, scientists noticed something even stranger than its rapid spin.

They found that the asteroid is experiencing unexpected "non-gravitational acceleration". It simply means that it is gaining speed and drifting off its expected path in a way that gravity alone cannot account for.

Normally, when an asteroid accelerates, experts suspect a "dark comet" explanation, meaning the object contains hidden ice that warms up, vaporises, and shoots out gas jets like a tiny rocket.

However, recent studies published in the scientific journal Icarus have pointed to something else.

According to the thermal data, the surface of 1998 KY26 stays way too warm to retain the frozen ice which is needed to fuel such gas jets.

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"Our temperature model results indicate that the water outgassing rate on 1998 KY26 would be too high to maintain buried ice, refining the understanding of the asteroid's composition," they write in a paper published in paper.

With the ice theory mostly ruled out, scientists are left looking at other possibilities.

Now, it means that Hayabusa2 is heading towards an unusual object that is accelerating anomalously.

Hayabusa2 is the Japanese space agency's (JAXA) asteroid sample-collecting spacecraft. After it picked up material from the asteroid Ryugu and dropped it off during a flyby of Earth in 2019, researchers tasked it with another mission.

The space agency noted that it would go over 300,000 kilometres (186,000 miles) from Earth. "The destination will be the small asteroid 1998 KY26. This is a long-term mission that exceeds 10 years and, after an itinerary of various events, we aim to rendezvous with the rapidly rotating 1998 KY26," JAXA said at the time. "We may also attempt particular challenges, such as dropping a target marker or touchdown."

Researchers will not have to guess forever as it currently journeying toward the asteroid, with plans to arrive around July 2031.

Until that probe gets close enough to take a look, the asteroid remains a puzzle for the researchers.