“Or you could just have a big object tossed in close to the star. It goes into orbit and it will get torn apart by the gravity of the star once it gets close enough.”
Ben Zuckerman
“If it were any larger, material from the surface would be flung into orbit around the star.”
Jason Hessels
“Indeed, the asteroid's orbit is particularly attractive for spacecraft rendezvous, and the extraordinary close encounter in April 2029 provides a unique opportunity to investigate a number of scientific NEO issues.”
Mary Cleave
“We've identified a new type of object that by the shape of its orbit is definitely a main-belt asteroid, but by its appearance is definitely a comet. It fits into both categories.”
David Jewitt
“Now that we know the orbits of all the stars, we can see that many nearby stars come from far away and are just transiting near us now.”
Johannes Andersen
“The disk of dust orbiting a star, similar to the dust we feel formed our solar system.”
Michael Werner
“All three objects are nearly Pluto-sized or larger, and all are in elliptical orbits tilted out of the plane of the solar system,”
Mike Brown
