This massive 2,300-foot asteroid spins every 2 minutes!
What's the story
A group of ultra-fast-rotating asteroids has been discovered in the solar system, with one of them spinning at an unprecedented speed. The Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile, which features the world's largest digital camera, detected 19 such asteroids in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. The study was published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters and highlights how an asteroid's rotation can reveal its formation history and composition.
Discovery
Ultra-fast rotators: A new class of asteroids
Among the 76 asteroids studied, 16 are super-fast rotators, spinning between 13 minutes and 2.2 hours. Three are ultra-fast ones, rotating once every five minutes or less. All these asteroids are at least 300 feet long, with some exceeding 3,000 feet in diameter. The most fascinating among them is the asteroid designated as 2025 MN45, which has been dubbed the fastest-spinning asteroid among those measuring over half a kilometer across.
Unusual characteristics
Asteroid 2025 MN45's unprecedented speed and stability
The asteroid 2025 MN45, which is a massive 2,300 feet in diameter, spins once every 1.88 minutes. This incredible speed would normally cause it to break apart but that hasn't happened yet. "Clearly, this asteroid must be made of material that has very high strength in order to keep it in one piece as it spins so rapidly," said lead author Sarah Greenstreet.
Composition inquiry
MN45's composition
Greenstreet, who heads the Rubin Observatory's Solar System Science Collaboration's Near-Earth Objects and Interstellar Objects working group, said that asteroid 2025 MN45 should have a strength of a solid piece of rock to have remained intact till now. She also noted that most asteroids are thought to be "rubble pile" asteroids made of many small pieces of rock and debris, coalesced under gravity during solar system formation or subsequent collisions.