112-Hubble Spots Comet Near Jupiter

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NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope snapped this image of the young comet P/2019 LD2 as it orbits near Jupiter’s captured ancient asteroids, which are called Trojans. This icy object is the first comet astronomers have spotted near the Trojan population.

The Hubble view reveals a 400,000-mile-long tail of dust and gas flowing from the wayward comet’s bright solid nucleus. The tail is evidence that the icy object is active, despite its great distance from the faint Sun, nearly a half-billion miles away. The tail could be driven by the release of carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide. These volatiles do not need much sunlight to heat their frozen form and convert them to gas.

After traveling several billion miles toward the Sun, a wayward young comet-like object orbiting among the giant planets has found a temporary parking place along the way.

The object has settled near a family of captured ancient asteroids, called Trojans, that are orbiting the Sun alongside Jupiter. This is the first time a comet-like object has been spotted near the Trojan population.