Mentor
- 4,789
- 3,854
JPL news:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2013-234
Paper:
http://iopscience.iop.org/0004-637X/773/1/22/
Quick precis:
Centaurs are smaller bodies orbiting out between Jupiter and Neptune, that have been difficult to classify. NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) has provided data to show that centaurs are almost all cometary in origin.
Centaurs are named after the half-man half-horse of mythology because of their apparent dual nature: asteroids that have characteristics of comets.
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2013-234
Paper:
http://iopscience.iop.org/0004-637X/773/1/22/
Quick precis:
Centaurs are smaller bodies orbiting out between Jupiter and Neptune, that have been difficult to classify. NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) has provided data to show that centaurs are almost all cometary in origin.
Centaurs are named after the half-man half-horse of mythology because of their apparent dual nature: asteroids that have characteristics of comets.